


Cavetrapped

by ArtisticAuthor



Category: Homestuck, wings of Fire - Fandom
Genre: Canon-Typical Violence, F/F, F/M, M/M, More relationships to be tagged as they appear, Multi, Past Child Abuse, Wings of Fire AU
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2017-11-18
Updated: 2018-01-28
Packaged: 2019-02-04 00:23:08
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 8
Words: 44,924
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/12759279
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/ArtisticAuthor/pseuds/ArtisticAuthor
Summary: It's been a long time since Jade Mountain Academy was founded by the Dragonets of Destiny. The Dragonets have since passed, but the school remains and while some changes have been made to it, the school is still the only one in all of Pyrrhia to have such a diverse mix of all the tribes attending it.Sharptongue, a four year old NightWing, has finally gotten his acceptance letter into the school and is ready to learn all he can about the continent he calls his home. However, the secrets and dark pasts of his new friends have come back to haunt them and Sharptongue finds keeping his own secret will be much harder than he originally thought.





	1. ~A Moon Stained With Blood~

**Author's Note:**

> Just a couple of things to keep in mind;  
> I started writing this shortly after Talons of Power was released. While I'm only just posting it here, I've already had a lot of chapters finished by the time Darkness of Dragons came out and I didn't feel like rewriting it so it takes place in an AU where half of the NightWings went back to the old Night Kingdom that was restored by Darkstalker before his defeat and the other half stayed in the rainforest. Everything else in Darkness of Dragons remains the same as it didn't really effect the fanfic at all.
> 
> I didn't want to have too many characters in one tribe so I tried to limit myself to "Three dragons in each tribe". This was difficult and while there are more NightWings and NightWing hybrids than the others, it's still fairly balanced. Some characters may be in tribes you wouldn't expect or hybrids you wouldn't expect because of this.
> 
> It should also be noted this contains a lot of personal headcanons of mine about the tribes as a whole, considering the information we got in canon about certain things was limited at best and nonexistent at worst. If, in the future, we get more information about the tribes(Tui please give us a guidebook or something I'm begging you), I may come back and edit those things up or just keep it as it is, depending on how different my headcanons are to canon.
> 
> Because of how long ago I began working on this, there sadly won't be any tribes outside of the original seven. As much as I want to add them, it's far too soon to add any from Pantala, nor will there be any fantribes.

_Four years ago..._

 

 _Where is it?_ A NightWing frantically searched the home of her neighbors, checking in every room she could. _It has to be here, don't tell me someone else already came by and took it._ She entered the final room and let out a long sigh of relief. There next to the doorway was a small wooden nest, stuffed with feathers and grass with an egg sitting peacefully inside it. It broke Starfall's heart to look at the egg, now orphaned since his parents' deaths earlier that day, but she was there to make sure it hatched safely.

Starfall approached and stiffened when she saw the egg shaking. It shouldn't have begun hatching for another month, and yet here it was, trying to break free already. She rushed it to the window and threw the blinds open. Moonlight flooded into the room and she could clearly see two moons hanging in the sky, one turning red as it eclipsed.

Frowning, the adult looked back down at the egg. With a flash of horror, she saw that instead of the normal silver that NightWing eggs turned before hatching, the egg was beginning to turn a deep shade of red-orange to match the eclipsing moon above them. Cracks started to spread through the egg, bits and pieces falling away. The dragonet inside appeared to be normal, from what Starfall could see, but she couldn't be sure until it was free.

The egg split apart and the undersized dragonet fell into the nest with a squawk. His amber eyes blinked up at Starfall, the tear-dropped shape marks behind his eyes glittering in the moonlight. He was undersized and looked so fragile Starfall was afraid to pick him up. His nose was thinner than most NightWings' and smoother long the top. His scales were tinted with red, reminding Starfall of the eclipse that was still happening right outside the window. Still, despite his oddness as she stared at him Starfall found herself already considering the little dragonet her son. She was the closest dragon to his parents and she couldn't let anyone else take him.

Carefully, Starfall picked the dragonet up and carried him out of the empty home and back to hers, just across the path, and headed inside. Lightweaver, who was supposed to be in bed sleeping, poked her head around the corner to see what was going on. She squeaked when her mother spotted her and she darted back towards her room.

“It's alright, dear,” Starfall called. “Come meet your new brother.”

“Brother?” Lightweaver echoed, slowly creeping back over. The newly hatched dragonet sniffed and craned his neck in an attempt to get a better look at Lightweaver. Lightweaver bounded over as Starfall sat him down, flinching back when he snapped at her.

“His name is Sharptongue,” Starfall said. She had remembered her dear friend, Evilslayer, mention the little dragonet's name after she'd seen him in one of her visions. Starfall's heart gave a little twist at the memory. Oh, how she wished her friend was still alive, how she could have lived a little longer to meet her own son.

Sharptongue slowly stood up on shaky legs and started to follow Lightweaver around, who was very enthusiastically showing him around the house. He stayed close to his adopted sister, stepping on her tail constantly and refusing to stay too far. Starfall smiled and shook her head, keeping a close eye on the two. At least she wouldn't have to worry too much about their futures.

Starfall flinched and stumbled, leaning against the wall for support. Flashes appeared in her mind, a vision too faint to be seen clearly and breaking apart into simple images or sounds. She could see Sharptongue and Lightweaver, a few years older and chatting excitedly about Jade Mountain Academy. She could see the other dragonets they would meet there and bits and pieces of their past. Two dragonets, looking startling similar to one another with a few differences, seemed to be around her children the most, sharing classes and enjoying their time.

However, the happy pieces didn't last long. She also heard screams and saw blood splattering against the gray rocks, Sharptongue standing over one of the dragonets with a snarl of fury, smoke curling out of his mouth as he prepared to breath fire at the threat Starfall couldn't see. She could see him badly injured and curled up in a nest in an unknown place, the dragonets he had befriended fretting over him. She could hear voices, familiar and unwelcome alike, hissing threats and plans to kill the group or to help them. She could hear the faint whispers of a prophecy she didn't recognize, but couldn't make it out it was saying. It was connected to her children, she knew that much, but it was not her prophecy to speak or fulfill. There was nothing she could do to help them.

Whatever the future had in store for them, it was not going to be an easy one. Starfall looked back at the dragonets who were rolling around on the floor, Lightweaver squawking with alarm as Sharptonge nipped her wing. Starfall had to rush over and separate them before it went too far, but Lightweaver just shook herself off and gave her mother an indignant look.

“I was winning,” she protested.

“It's time for bed,” Starfall told her in response. She picked up Sharptongue, not trusting him enough to risk another fight breaking out, and carried him to the empty room in the back. She would have to send a letter to the queen later about adopting the little dragonet now that his parents were gone, but that could wait until morning.

With the vision still in her mind, she tucked the two into bed and told them each a story before she returned to the house across the path. She stepped into it and looked up at a portrait of Evilslayer and her husband. It was all she had left of them now, but she couldn't bring herself to take it from their home.

“What are you doing in here?” Starfall whipped around, spikes along her back raising in alarm. She relaxed when she realized it was just one of the neighbors.

“I came to pay my respects,” she answered simply. The neighbor nodded and looked to the painting.

“What will happen to their egg?” he asked.

“I'll raise it myself.” Starfall turned away from the painting. “I had a vision tonight of its future. He'll finish what they started.”

“Will he now?” The dragon's eyes gleamed in the darkness, a small smile tugging at the edges of his mouth. “Well, I look forward to seeing that. It's about time someone did something. Let's hope he doesn't suffer the same fate.”

Starfall shuddered, thinking back to the image of her adopted son curled up tight with a wound in his side. She prayed it wouldn't be fatal. “I'm sure he'll be fine,” she said. “He has a great destiny ahead of him. But do not mention it to him or so help me I'll tear your throat out myself. It's best he learns when it's time for him to and no sooner.”

“And who decides when his time comes to learn?” the neighbor challenged. “Not you, surely?”

“A vision will come to him or someone he knows,” Starfall answered. “My daughter, perhaps, but I don't know. Then he will learn and he can join his parents' followers and end this once and for all.”

Without waiting for a response from the neighbor, she whipped around and headed back to her home. She sighed when she heard the cries of the young dragon and turned, grabbing some leftovers from dinner and carrying them into his room to feed him. He eagerly dug into the food, ripping it apart into easier to swallow pieces with his tiny teeth. Starfall watched him proudly. He would be a feisty little dragonet and a bit difficult to raise, but if he was anything like his parents then she was confident there was nothing to worry about.

The reign of that tyrant would be over soon.


	2. ~Silent Minds and Loud Hearts~

“Sharptongue, the big day is here!” Sharptongue's head shot up at the sound of Starfall's voice calling him from the kitchen. He scrambled off his bed and fell to the ground with a muffled thud as his foot got tangled in the blankets.

“I'm okay,” he called before anyone could come and check on him. A graceful swan he was not, but there was no way he was going to let anyone see him like that. He kicked the blanket off and rushed out of the room to the kitchen.

Starfall's house was big enough for the little family of three. Each dragon got their own room with Starfall's being located at the very back and the two dragonets lived in the rooms on either side of the hall, right across from each other. The hallway led to the living room where the fireplace and a couple couches were located. The kitchen was right next to it and right beside that was a small hallway that led out to the door. The kitchen's front wall had a window that curved outward and took up most of the wall. Drapes, made by Lightweaver, were normally pulled over them, but not today. On either side of the front door were two flower pots blooming with bright flowers of many colors. They were growing in the window boxes as well and vines grew all around the edges of the house.

Starfall, a NightWing with hints of green in her scales, was at the table, putting a squirrel out on each plate. Her daughter, Lightweaver, was already at the table, her bag sitting neatly on the floor beside her as she eagerly waited for Sharptongue.

Lightweaver was elegant and beautiful with green tinted scales and a very pale almost white underside. She had the ability to see the future and she used this power to keep her and everyone she cared about safe, warning them if she saw anything dangerous in their futures. Sure, she had a pair of long fangs, but no dragon was completely flawless. She was, to Sharptongue, the perfect example of a NightWing,

He, on the other talon, was not.

Sharptongue was a scrawny and undersized compared to other NightWings his age. Dragons constantly mistook him to be a year or two younger than he actually was and it bugged him to no end, though there wasn't a whole lot he could do about it. His scales were tinted with red and he had the tear drop-shaped behind his amber eyes that marked him as a mind reader. The stars on the underside of his wings were small and few in numbers and his snout was thinner and smoother along the top than other NightWings, who had more bumpier and thicker snouts. The top row of teeth stuck out even when his mouth was closed.

The only part about himself he found even the slightest bit interesting were the small half circles of stars along the edges of his wings with short, swirling lines of stars curling off of them like claws. These little half circles and claw-shaped lines gave of a very faint glow, though it was really only noticeable in the dark. He had asked Lightweaver about them before, but she could never give a straight answer about them. All she told him were that his father had patterns like that under his wings.

Sharptongue had hatched a month early on the very day his parents had died. Starfall, after hearing of their deaths, decided to raise Sharptongue herself. Sharptongue was well aware that he was not biologically related to Lightweaver nor Starfall, but Starfall was still his mother and Lightweaver was still his sister, related by blood or not.

“Excited for the big day?” Lightweaver asked as he sat beside her. The answer to that question was a huge, YES spelled out in all capital letters in fireworks, but Sharptongue forced back his excitement and gave her a small shrug in response.

“I guess,” he answered. Upon seeing Lightweaver's skeptical look, a grin spread on his face and his tail started twitching back and forth. “Okay, yeah, I am. We actually got accepted into Jade Mountain Academy, who _wouldn't_ be excited?”

There had been a few small changes to the school, especially after the expansions made to it, courtesy of an animus dragon, but the idea of the school remained since the passing of its founders. Dragons were now separated into different Wings depending on their age; Fin, Glider, Insect, Feather, Bat and Dragon. Dragons from ages one to ten were all accepted. Dragons all shared a cave with six other dragons, one from each tribe, all of the same gender which were called their Winglets. There were six Winglets in each Wing; Jade, Sapphire, Gold, Silver, Copper and Quartz. All of the classes were relatively the same for each Wing, but the founders decided it was best for dragons to be in classes with others their own ages. Because of how each class was basically the same, regardless of age, a dragon would only be allowed to attend Jade Academy once in their lives outside of special circumstances such as a dragon having to go home early due to an emergency or missing too much class from injury or illness.

Sharptongue and Lightweaver had both applied for the school the year before and were pleasantly surprised when their acceptance letters arrived. Sharptongue had a few concerns about going to a school full of dragons from the other tribes when he barely knew anything about due to never leaving the Night Kingdom, but he pushed all of those concerns to the back of his mind. He was not going to chicken out so soon, or ever, really. He'd even studied scrolls about the other tribes and spoke to traders about them whenever possible to prepare himself. He didn't know everything about them, but he felt confident that he knew enough to get by until he could learn more at the school.

Once their breakfast was over, Starfall lead Lightweaver and Sharptongue to the outskirts of the city where they took off towards Jade Mountain. They flew for a while, but when Sharptongue heard someone call out, he paused, hovering and looking back to see who was following them.

“Hey, Shortlizard!” Sharptongue bit back a smile as his friend, Oddeyes, flew in to hover in front of him, giving him a toothy grin.

Oddeyes earned his name from how he had one amber eye and one blue eye. That wasn't the only odd thing about him, though, in Sharptongue's opinion. Most NightWings were black and were tinted with other colors and normally these hints of color were difficult to see unless the sun hit them just right, but not with Oddeyes. Oddeyes was brighter than other NightWings. He was more of a really dark yellow instead of black and looked almost like a sickly green. He was scrawny too, with long, uneven teeth that could be seen even when he closed his mouth. According to Oddeyes, all the NightWings in the Rainforest Kingdom were bright like him.

Oddeyes had moved to the Night Kingdom a year ago and he and Sharptongue had become fast friends, constantly teasing and playfully insulting each other. Sharptongue didn't know much about Oddeyes's life back at the Rainforest, but from what he had been told it hadn't exactly been a good one. Apparently there had been a long circle of revenge or something like that in Oddeyes's group of friends back at the Rainforest not too long before he moved. Sharptongue figured it was a touchy subject and never asked about it.

“Hey, Weridface,” Sharptongue shot back. “Come to say goodbye?”

“No, actually I'm joining you,” Oddeyes replied. “I got in, too. I don't know if I should tell you this, but so did Hiddenheart.”

“Three moons, not her.” Sharptongue scowled. “Couldn't they have chosen anyone else?”

Hiddenheart was a NightWing who Sharptongue hated with every fiber of his being and knowing she would be going to the same school as him made him want to stay home. To him, she was the worst kind of dragon and he wanted nothing to do with her or her pathetic and disgusting crush she had on him.

“We should wait for her,” Lightweaver said. Lightweaver was the kind of dragon who tried to bring out the good in others, but Sharptongue was convinced there was no good in Hiddenheart. He was hoping that Lightweaver would come to her senses soon and ditch Hiddenheart for some real friends.

“And risk being late?” Sharptongue asked. “No way! She'll catch up.” Maybe if they got there early enough he could avoid Hiddenheart for a few days, if not the entire school year. It was wishful thinking, he knew, but he wanted to _enjoy_ his first day, not have some moon-eyed dragonet stepping on his tail the whole day.

“Oh, alright,” Lightweaver sighed. She cast one last look over her shoulder before flying alongside them towards the mountains.

When they finally reached Jade Mountain, tons of students were already swarming around it, chatting and running around to greet old friends and make new ones. Sharptongue saw Oddeyes scanning the crowd out of the corner of his eye, most likely looking for his old friends. He said a quick good-bye to Sharptongue before disappearing into the crowd.

“Be good, okay?” Starfall turned to the two remaining dragonets. “Don't do anything too reckless and try not to make any enemies.” She stared at Sharptongue with that final sentence. Sharptongue huffed and grumbled under his breath. It wasn't _his_ fault other dragons could be infuriatingly stupid sometimes.

“We won't,” he and Lightweaver promised.

“Make lots of friends, okay?” Starfall said, looking at Sharptongue as she said that. “I know they'll help you out in the future.”

“I'll try,” Sharptongue replied. Starfall smiled and gave them one last hug, before urging them to hurry on inside.

“And Sharptongue.” Sharptongue paused and looked back at his adopted mother. “Keep an eye out for anything suspicious.”

Without explaining what she meant by that, Starfall turned and took off. Sharptongue stared after her, wondering why she felt the need to give him such an ominous warning. Well, there went any and all plans to completely trust his clawmates. He could only hope Starfall was just being overprotective.

As they walked, Sharptongue stared up at the glass bulbs that covered the burning flames, lighting up the hallways with multi-colored light and adding some color to the gray scale school to make it more welcoming and colorful. Technically, school wouldn't start until next sunrise, but the students were encouraged to get there early to meet their clawmates.

They walked over to the dragon-a SeaWing-who was handing out schedules and maps. On his schedule was the cave he would be staying in. He and Lightweaver parted ways as they reached the hallway, promising to meet up later in the Prey Center. He was pleased to find that her cave was right next to his.

The main cave was large and open, a table on the right side next to the wall with a few couches around it. There was a window on the left side, the leaf drapes covering it to let in little light. There were three glass bulbs hanging from the ceiling and two more at the entrance to the cave. There were a couple scroll racks on either side of the doorway, each having a couple scrolls in them already.

A hallway led to the back of the cave, towards the three rooms where the dragonets in the Winglet would be sleeping. As far as Sharptongue knew, the largest room would hold three dragons and the other two would only have about two in them. The hallway had a glass bulb hanging from the ceiling, dark for the day but would light itself at night to give the dragons a little extra light for any late-night walks.

Sharptongue headed into each room, poking his head into them. In each room there were scroll racks beside each bed, each having a plaque with the name of the dragon it belonged to on it, and a glass bulb attached to the wall between each bed that would have to be lit by a dragon, most likely for late night studying. A glass bulb hung from the ceiling and would stay lit through the day, as did the two in the doorway to each room.

The room on the right had an ice bed and a pool of mud in it. The room on the left had a rock bed and a pool of water. The larger room with three beds was the one Sharptongue would be sleeping in. There was a hammock hanging from the ceiling, next to the window, a bed exactly like the one Sharptongue slept in back home and a pit of sand.

 _Odd,_ Sharptongue thought. _Why would the SandWing's pit of sand be so far from the window?_ It was no secret each room had been enchanted so that the beds were set up in a way that the dragonets would like best, each fitting the kind they would have at home. As far as Sharptongue knew, SandWings loved the sun as much as RainWings. Maybe it was an error in the enchantment.

He turned to the scroll racks to read them. _Hurricane, Sharptongue, Ghostcaller..._ Ghostcaller sounded like a NightWing name and as far as Sharptongue knew each Winglet was supposed to only have one dragon from each tribe in it.

 _Maybe that's why the room looks weird_ , he thought. _It didn't know what to do with two dragons from the same tribe. He has to be from the Rainforest Kingdom. It's the only explanation for the hammock being right next to the window like it would for a normal RainWing, that NightWing's probably used to sleeping under the sun, but the big question is why the school placed two dragons from the same tribe in the same room? I thought there were supposed to only be_ one _dragon from each tribe sharing a cave. Do they consider Rainforest NightWings to be RainWings or another tribe entirely?_

Despitedoing as much research as he could about the other tribes, names were generally not a part of the scrolls unless they were using examples of particular dragons. This was going to be difficult to figure out, especially if they knew about the scales behind his eyes and made him guess their names. He probably should have studied the other tribes naming systems more before coming to school. Maybe he could slip away to the library before they got to the cave and cram in as much information about them as he could before next sunrise.

Sharptongue huffed and walked over to his bed, flopping down onto it. The blankets were warm and comforting and it already made him a little homesick. He squashed down that feeling immediately. He was not going to start thinking about home, not now. This was his home now. He looked up when he heard voices coming down the hallway.

“...We're in the same Winglet! This year is going to be the best year of our lives! You think the rest of our Winglet are nice? I hope they are.”

“I guess fate just doesn't want me to be separated from my best friend.” This voice was a little deeper. Sharptongue tipped his head to the side in thought, wondering which clawmates he would be meeting first.

Moments later, a blue RainWing with bright blue eyes came bounding into the cave, a huge grin on his face. Sharptongue stared at him in confusion. The RainWing _looked_ normal, but his scales weren't as soft and there was harder plating running down his back. His horns were longer too, and his wings looked bigger than they should be. He looked a lot different than the pictures of normal RainWings he had seen in the scrolls about them.

The RainWing was mostly blue, but the armored scales running down his back, legs and wings and the line of ridges running along his spine were all very dark, almost black. His horns and the 'mask' of scales around his eyes, top of his head and nose were all the same color. His underside was a bright green and his talons were yellow. The membranes of the RainWing's wings were a paler blue than his main body, as was the ruff behind his ears.

Sharptongue saw splashes of yellow spreading through the RainWing's scales as he spotted him. Oddly enough, it didn't look like these colors were any shades lighter or darker than the blues they were replacing. It was then that Sharptongue finally realized this dragon had to be a hybrid.

Hybrids were a lot more common in Pyrrhia since the end of the war, but Jade Mountain Academy was really the only place that could teach them due to the discrimination against them by a lot of other dragons. Hybrids weren't hated as much as they used to be when the tribes were still warring constantly, but they weren't exactly liked much either. Sharptongue had never seen a hybrid before in his life, so this was definitely new and exciting.

“Hi, I'm Hurricane!” The hybrid beamed at Sharptongue. Sharptongue wasn't too sure what to say, but was thankfully interrupted by another dragonet as he entered the room.

“Hey, Hurricane, don't go scaring our clawmates away so soon,” The dragonet joked. At least, Sharptongue thought he was joking. He kept a straight face and was so calm that Sharptongue couldn't get a good read on him. His voice was monotone as well, barely any emotion in it.

The dragonet was a white SandWing with a pair of odd looking, dark-tinted glass on his face that were attached to a golden wire stretching up and wrapping around his horns to keep them in place. They kept his eyes completely hidden from view and it was impossible to see what was behind the glass. His snout was longer than the other SandWings Sharptongue had seen outside and the sail running down his back started just behind his head and ended just past the halfway point of his tail. Aside from that, he looked and seemed completely normal.

He had a few scars as well, which were relatively uncommon since there had been no warring since the SandWing War. There was a tear in his left ear and the edges of his wings were ripped up. His back sail was torn as well and there was a particularly nasty looking scar that ripped through a part of the sail on the back of his neck and stretched down one side of his neck. Another nasty looking scar was slashed across one of his heels, just under the extra claw. Sharptongue wondered what could have caused all of those injuries.

The SandWing's ears were pricked forward and despite his seemingly relaxed posture, his ears would swivel towards every little sound and his tail would often coil and twitch slightly, as if he was expecting to be attacked and preparing to defend himself. Anytime there was any sudden movement, he would turn his head ever so slightly in that direction to see what it was, though how he could see anything through those dark glasses was anyone's guess.

Sharptongue was positive this couldn't be Ghostcaller. He looked nothing like a NightWing, in Sharptongue's opinion. He thought through the names he had seen on the other scroll racks, deciding this must be Lightning.

He quickly became aware that Totally-Is-Lightning was staring at him. Even if he couldn't see the dragonet's eyes, he knew where that stare was focused on. It wasn't directed at him, but rather the scales that marked him as a mind reader. Sharptongue shifted awkwardly and turned his attention to the RainWing, who seemed to be thinking judging from the clouds of colors spreading through his scales.

“You're a mind reader aren't you?” he asked. “What am I thinking? Can you tell?” Sharptongue cast him a withering look. RainWings wore their emotions on their scales so what was even the point of asking? _Any_ dragon could read a RainWing's mind just by looking at their scales. Still, Sharptongue hadn't met enough RainWings-or any, really-to know what any of those colors even meant and the scrolls he had read only stated basic colors like yellow for happiness or red for anger. He'd have to study this RainWing a lot more in the future and learn what emotion each color represented. Luckily, this dragon was easy to read without the help of his scales.

“You're thinking about how exciting it is to be here and see your friends and make new friends,” Sharptongue stated bluntly. A look of surprise formed on the RainWing's face and small splashes of orange appeared on his scales before being covered by bright yellow and pink again. _Orange means surprised_ , Sharptongue noted.

“Wow, that's spot on!” The RainWing turned to grin at his friend. “Hey, what's Ghost thinking? I can never tell with him!” The _SandWing_ was Ghostcaller? That made no sense. Sure, he had never met a SandWing personally, but he was positive that they did _not_ have NightWingish names. Unless, of course, they stole _that_ along with all their treasure so long ago when the NightWings left their first kingdom after Darkstalker's first failed take over attempt. Just the thought of it made him want to burn off this SandWing's face.

Still, there was something unnerving about the SandWing. Normally the inability to see a dragon's eyes didn't bother him-he had other ways to tell what a dragon was like-but this one? Not a chance. Aside from the small twitch of an ear or his tail tip, he remained totally still, not smiling, but not quite frowning either. He was, it seemed, completely and totally emotionless. Sharptongue had to find a way out of this.

“Sorry if this comes off as rude-actually I'm not-but I'm not here for your entertainment,” Sharptongue hissed. “We're to LEARN and NOT bug our clawmates with stupid things like powers, which, by the way, I'm sure you already know a lot about and should be used to considering you come from the rainforest where A BUNCH OF OTHER NIGHTWINGS WITH POWERS EXACTLY LIKE MINE LIVE.”

The RainWing, Hurricane, blinked and took a step back, ruff flaring open as streaks of lime green, and purple spread through his scales. Sharptongue almost felt bad for him, but pushed any thoughts of regrets away instantly. He should have already known how rude the question was. The SandWing raised a curious brow, yet he remained as straight faced as always. Sharptongue wasn't sure he would enjoy being around the two for an entire year.

“Oh, three moons, I'm really sorry,” Hurricane said after a moment, his scales turning back to blue with a greyish tint to them. Sharptongue wondered if that meant anything. “I guess I should have thought a little more about that. You must get asked stuff like that a lot, huh? Sorry, it's just that a lot of NightWings in the Rainforest don't have powers, with them being still so superstitious about them.” He then laughed, scales fading back to the blue and yellow he had been earlier.

 _NightWings in the Rainforest don't have powers?_ Sharptongue echoed in his mind. That made him feel a little better about his secret, but not by much. Rainforest NightWings might as well have been an entirely new tribe, with their more vibrant scales and lack of powers. Sharptongue doubted if most of them were even purebred anymore. They were all probably RainWing hybrids of some kind.

“I am NOT grumpy,” Sharptongue huffed. “I'm OFFENDED by your blatant disregard to how often we NightWings get asked that sort of thing.” The grin on the RainWing's face told him he, once again, was correct. His curiosity satisfied, Hurricane turned and walked over to his hammock, peering in to check it out. Sharptongue turned his attention to the SandWing, Ghostcaller, trying to figure out his name.

“So what's your name anyway?” Hurricane asked as he climbed into the hammock, poking his head out and resting it on the side.

“Sharptongue,” Sharptongue answered. He heard the SandWing let out a muffled snort of amusement.

“You NightWings sure do like your literal names, don't you?” he asked. Sharptongue's eyes narrowed as he stared back at him.

“Our parents sometimes go to seers and ask what our lives might be like when deciding on a name,” he explained. “My parents had already chosen my name before my egg was even born, having seen it in a vision themselves. Speaking of names, what's the deal with _yours_? Ghostcaller sounds a _lot_ more like a _NightWing_ name than a _SandWing_ name.” There was a subtle, nervous shift in the SandWing's stance. Had Sharptongue's eyes not been as sharp as his tongue, he wouldn't have noticed it. No amount of movement, no matter how small, could escape his attention. _Ha_ , he thought. _Not so emotionless as you like to act, are you? You can't hide everything from me._

“I get that a lot,” Ghostcaller said. “Probably more than you get the 'read my mind!' thing. My mom liked NightWings a lot. I'm not too terribly fond of the name myself, really. I guess she was more concerned with giving me a cool name to fit my cool personality than one that fit me as a SandWing.” This dragon sure seemed confident and sure of himself, but there was a small tone to his voice, a wavering one, that Sharptongue could just barely hear. There was a lot going on with this dragon, a lot that he couldn't quite put his talon on, but it was clear that Ghostcaller wasn't giving him the full truth, if there was even any truth at all in his words. That was suspicious. He'd have to keep an eye on this weird SandWing and make sure he wasn't up to something.

“Hey, we're in here!” Hurricane suddenly called. Sharptongue turned, spotting a MudWing about to head into the room with the mud puddle.

“Bull, I presume?” Sharptongue spoke. The MudWing blinked at him and then nodded, shyly ducking his head.

“Is this, uh, a bad time?” he squeaked. “I could just come back later.”

“No, this is a great time!” Hurricane piped up, hopping out of his hammock. Bull jumped, startled by how suddenly the RainWing seemed to appear out of no where. “Come on in, Ox!”

“M-my name's Bull, actually-but you can call me Ox if you prefer it! I-I won't mind!” Bull reached out with his talons and pulled his tail a little closer to himself. A nervous trait, most likely. Sharptongue spotted Ghostcaller watching the MudWing, definitely thinking the exact same thing as Sharptongue. Just what was this SandWing up to?

“Hey, dude, it's fine,” Ghostcaller said. “Whatever's cool with you. Don't be afraid to speak up, we don't bite. Well, The NightWing might.” Bull blinked again, gratefully this time, at the SandWing and nodded, taking a deep breath and holding his head up high as Sharptongue shot Ghostcaller a glare. Maybe this SandWing wasn't so bad. Maybe he was just as nervous and insecure as everyone else and was just hiding it behind a cool guy facade to comfort the others or himself. It certainly seemed to be working for the nervous little MudWing, at least.

“Yeah, I'm Bull,” Bull said, stepping into the cave. “So what were you talking about before I inter-w-walked in?”

“Just our names, really,” Hurricane said. “I'm Hurricane and that's Ghostcaller and Grumpyface.”

“My name,” Sharptongue hissed, getting up and storming over to the RainWing to shove his nose up against Hurricane's. “Is SHARPTONGUE and I'd appreciate it if you called me by my actual name instead of a PATHETIC nickname like that, you steaming pile of burning deer dung!” Hurricane let out another laugh and Sharptongue could swear he saw a smile tugging at the edges of Ghostcallers mouth.

Meanwhile, while Sharptongue was speaking, Bull headed around the edge of the room to keep out of the way. His tail dragged behind him on the ground like a useless, broken branch. Was something wrong with it or was that just how all MudWings walked?

“Wow, is _that_ a conversation to walk into.” Sharptongue spun around, the spikes along his back raising slightly in alarm. Another SandWing, older by at least a year or maybe even two, stood at the entrance of the cave. The SandWing was a slightly darker shade of pale orange than Sharptongue thought SandWings were supposed to be and the membranes of his wings and sail were a few shades darker, fading into a darker orange around the edges. He was wearing the weird tinted glass over his eyes like Ghostcaller, though these ones were more pointed than rounded. He moved silently, placing each talon carefully and quickly, used to sneaking around and avoiding detection.

“Hi, Osprey,” Ghostcaller walked over to greet the other dragon, who raised a closed talon. Ghostcaller bumped his own closed talon against it with a grin. A genuine grin, Sharptongue realized. It lasted for only a second, but it was clear these two knew each other and they had to be close. He wouldn't deny it was strange how they both had the weird tinted glass hiding their eyes. That greeting was different from a normal dragon greeting, too. Friends? No, there was a bigger connection between the two. It went much deeper. They cared a lot for each other-loved each other, even.

“Your brother's pretty quiet,” Sharptongue said. “You should be careful about sneaking around like that, someone might take it the wrong way and claw your nose off.” The two SandWings slowly turned to him. The way they watched him, like a coiling snake ready to strike, sent shivers down his spine, but he squashed that feeling down and to a corner of his mind. He would not be intimidated by his stupid, smug clawmate and his brother who probably wasn't even in the Glider Wing and therefor probably shouldn't even be in their cave.

“You mentioned me already, huh?” Osprey turned to his little brother, who shook his head and raised a talon to point at the edge of his eye. Osprey looked back to Sharptongue, spotting the teardrop shaped scales. His tail coiled up for a moment. Sharptongue was sure that meant he was nervous or at the very least displeased with the information.

“Ah, mind reader,” he said, calmer than his brother if that was even possible. “Don't know how you managed it, NightWing.”

“Managed what exactly?” Sharptongue questioned. He then realized that these dragons, judging from how they acted so calm all the time, were the kind who guarded their secrets behind a barrier of thorns, and hastily added, “Break past your mind barriers? Yes, nice try and a WONDERFUL effort, I'm sure, but no barrier can stand up to _my_ mind reading abilities. An experienced mind reader like myself lets no barrier stop him, but of course you SandWings wouldn't know anything about _that_.”

There was a sharp tapping noise and it didn't take long for Sharptongue to find the source; it was Ghostcaller, tapping a beat on the stone floor with a talon and from the way Osprey reacted with a quick nod it was very obvious that it was some sort of code between the two of them and it was not comforting at all and Sharptongue was positive it was about him. He felt a flash of fear and wondered, for just a moment, if they knew he couldn't read their minds. Ghostcaller's tail twitched, like he wanted to coil it and his talons gripped the ground just a little tighter, quickly tapping again with one claw. He was scared. Why? Why would _he_ be scared? Was it because Sharptongue was a mind reader? Were they plotting to kill him or something like that, in case he overheard some sort of evil plot? Starfall's warning played through his head again and he wondered if she had seen the two SandWings in a vision and was trying to warn him about them.

“Hey, Osprey, right?” The older SandWing turned his gaze to Hurricane, whose voice snapped Sharptongue out of his thoughts. “Is Jewelsnatcher here?” There was a small speck of pink that appeared on Hurricane's scales before it was quickly turned back to blue. That pink definitely had to mean something differently from earlier if he changed it so quickly. One color had multiple meanings, it seemed. That would be infuriating to learn and made Sharptongue's research much more complicated. He definitely couldn't just ask, because then Hurricane might just be smart enough to ask why a mind reader would ask what emotion the colors represented when they could just see it all in his mind.

“Yeah, but she's probably gone out for a flight by now,” Osprey said, a bit warily as he stared at the hybrid. “I'll tell her you said hi, though. Hey, you four want to come out and join me in the prey center? Rose is there and Jewelsnatcher might be back by now.”

“Sure!” Hurricane hopped down out of his hammock. “Want to come, Bull? Sharptongue? My cousin Jade might be there, too. I'm sure she'd love to meet you!”

“Oh, uh, thanks for the offer,” Bull said. “but I'd rather stay here. It was a _really_ long walk here from the Diamond Spray Delta.”

“You WALKED!?” Sharptongue exclaimed in shock. “Why!?” Bull shifted awkwardly, pulling his tail closer to himself again.

“I didn't walk the _whole_ way,” he said. “Just most of it. I'm not very good at flying. A lot of MudWings aren't. You guys have fun, though! I'm, uh, probably going to take a nap or something, honestly. Or sleep the rest of the day.” Sharptongue knew that MudWings were the clumsiest fliers after SeaWings, but he didn't think a MudWing would prefer walking all the way from the Diamond Spray Delta to Jade Mountain. If he really walked all that way, he must have left his home days ago. Maybe he was so nervous he was hoping if he walked all the way there, by the time he got to the mountain school would be over. Or maybe he wanted to prolong arriving for as long as he could, at least. Seemed he underestimated the distance, seeing as how he got there a day before school actually started.

“Alright, little buddy, suit yourself,” Ghostcaller followed his older brother out of the cave with Hurricane right behind him. Sharptongue got up and walked after them, figuring it was a lot better than just sitting around in an empty cave. His other Winglet members were probably all wandering around or hadn't gotten to the school yet. Besides, it gave him an excuse to study the three more carefully.

The prey center was huge, one wall open to a sheer cliff and open sky. A river flowed around the opposite end from the opening and through an archway. There were a few dragonets here or there, chatting and eating. Some were picking through the meat and fruit piled next to the river, trying to find something they liked or something new they wanted to try.

“Guess they left,” Osprey sighed. He shook his head. “Well, looks like you'll have to wait a little longer, then.” A bit of green spread through Hurricane's scales for a moment and he had a disappointed look on his face.

“Oh,” he said. He then quickly turned his scales back to blue and grinned at Sharptongue. “Well, that's okay! You'll get to meet them eventually.”

“Looking forward to it,” Sharptongue muttered. Honestly, he was. Rose couldn't be as emotionless as the others, right? Maybe he could sneakily ask her a few questions to get more information about them. As for Jewelsnatcher, if her name was as spot on as NightWing names tended to be, he wasn't sure he really wanted to meet her. He was the last dragon to believe in stereotypes, but with a name like Jewelsnatcher, he couldn't help but be a little wary of this dragon he had never met.

“Sharptongue.” Sharptongue looked over his shoulder, spotting Lightweaver as she walked over to them. “Are these our winglet members?”

“Yeah,” Sharptongue answered. “Lightweaver, this is Hurricane, Ghostcaller and Ghostcaller's brother, Osprey.”

“Hello, there,” Lightweaver greeted. “It is a pleasure to meet all of you. I am Lightweaver.”

“Wait, that tiny Nightwing's part of your winglet?” Osprey asked, looking to Ghostcaller. Ghostcaller shrugged.

“I guess he's just smart,” he said.

“No, no, Sharptongue is the same age as us.” Lightweaver stood beside Sharptongue, her wing reaching out to brush against his as a reminder to keep calm. Still, Sharptongue couldn't suppress the growl that rose in the back of his throat or stop his talons from digging into the ground. “He just hatched a little early, is all.” Osprey nodded in understanding and mumbled a soft apology Sharptongue's way. Sharptongue huffed and glared at him.

“Hi!” A shiny, white IceWing was suddenly beside him, her eyes bright and curious. She was small, almost smaller than Sharptongue, but she was definitely four years old like them, judging from her horns and spikes. She had silvery splotches on her scales and her toes were the same color. Her eyes, strangely, were a deep greyish green color instead of blue like he had heard IceWings were supposed to have. Another hybrid, maybe? No, compared to the other IceWings in the area, she looked far too normal to be just another hybrid. This was a purebred IceWing, even if she was a little weird.

“This is Snow Leopard.” Lightweaver smiled. “She's not in my winglet, but she is our clawmate.”

“You can just call me Leopard if you want,” Snow Leopard said. “My friend, Horse, should be around here somewhere. He's half MudWing and really big and strong! He's kind of overprotective of me, though. I convinced him to go to the library and meet me there later so he didn't try to scare you away.” That wasn't very comforting information. At least Horse wasn't in his winglet. He wasn't sure he wanted to live in a cave with a dragon like that. Sharptongue didn't pay much attention to the rest of the introductions being passed around. He swept his gaze around the room and then stiffened when a flash of color caught his eye. He heard a few murmurs of surprise and maybe one or two gasps from the other dragons in the cave.

It was another SandWing.

The bottom row of scales running along her pale gold underside and her face were gold, the row of scales above that a yellowish orange and the scales running down her spine with her back sail were orange. The top of her wing membranes were that same orange, but the underside of her wings and the sail running down her back, starting just behind her head and ending a little past the halfway point of her tail, were an orange-tinted brown with silver, star-like speckles. Staring at her was like staring at the sunset over a desert.

She was absolutely _beautiful_ , and from the looks on the other dragons' faces, he wasn't the only one who thought so. And she knew it, too, from the way she strode towards them, her head and wings held high. She smiled politely at them, but there was a mischievous gleam in her odd lavender eyes that Sharptongue didn't quite trust.

“Hello, Ghostcaller,” she greeted, a hint of amusement in her voice. “I see you've made a new friend already.” That look in her eyes told Sharptongue that she knew very well that he and Ghostcaller weren't friends. Sharptongue turned to look at Ghostcaller, whose attention was focused entirely on the other SandWing.

“I guess you could say that, Rose,” Ghostcaller replied coolly.

The two looked almost like twins with the same snout and sail. The only differences between them were their colors and the fact that she was missing the venomous barb at the end of her tail. But if they were really siblings, that would mean that Ghostcaller was...

 _“My mother liked NightWings.”_ Sharptongue remembered him saying earlier. S _he sure liked them enough to have three dragonets with one._

“Surprise.” Ghostcaller turned to give him a forced grin when he saw the look on Sharptongue's face. “I'm a hybrid, too. And I know quite a bit about mind readers and mind barriers,” He shifted the weird glass over his eyes for a moment, just enough to keep his eyes hidden, but to show Sharptongue the teardrop-shaped scales behind them. “Considering I am one.”

 


	3. ~Birds of a Feather~

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Very sorry for the delay in these next two chapters. As an apology, I've decided to upload two chapters today!

Sharptongue tried to ignore the anxiety squirming around in his stomach. If this dragonet could really read minds, then he probably already knew Sharptongue's secret. This was going to make the school year even more difficult. Then again, Sharptongue kept a strong barrier up in front of his secrets. No one was going to get through that, he made sure of it. As long as he was careful, Ghostcaller wouldn't hear anything. He tried to keep himself as calm as possible.

“There you are!” Oddeyes came trotting over to them, completely unaware of what just happened. “I've been looking all over the place for you. I found Flare.”

Flare was a SkyWing that Oddeyes had been friends with back before he moved to the Night Kingdom. They had dated briefly, but a nasty rumor that had been spread by another friend of theirs forced them to break up. They had made up since then, but decided to just stay friends.

Sharptongue followed his gaze to a pretty dark red SkyWing with an orange underside and wing membranes chatting with a lighter colored SkyWing with milky teal green eyes. She turned to look at them and smiled before walking over to join them, her tail just barely brushing up against the other SkyWing's wing. The other SkyWing followed her over to them, placing every talon carefully.

The other SkyWing was just a shade brighter than Flare. Her underside and wing membranes, however, were a paler red.

“Hi, Pyrope,” Hurricane greeted the other SkyWing. Hurricane knew this SkyWing? He must have met them after Oddeyes had moved, because Oddeyes had never mentioned a RainWing hybrid before.

“Hey, Hurricane,” The SkyWing grinned and then sniffed, wandering over to Sharptongue. “You smell like bitterness and insecurity.”

“I do NOT!” Sharptongue shoved her nose away and she cackled, turning to Ghostcaller and sniffing him next.

“Is that Ghostcaller?” she asked. “He smells delicious!”

“I know I am,” Ghostcaller said with another smirk. “But I don't know if I'd be comfortable in a relationship with someone who sniffs at other dragons, you know.” Pyrope let out another cackling laugh and Sharptongue started to like Ghostcaller even less.

“You're Sharptongue, right?” Flare asked, looking down at him. Sharptongue gave her a nod and she responded to it with a smile. “Oddeyes mentioned you and Lightweaver a few times in his letters. It's great to finally meet you!”

“Snow Leopard!” A huge MudWing walked over to them with two others right behind him, his blue eyes narrowed. He was definitely half IceWing with his dark blue scales and white underside. His spikes were longer and sharper and he had the jagged, spiky scales on his legs like an IceWing as well. He was massive, almost twice the size of a normal MudWing his age.

“Hi, Horse!” Leopard didn't seem too scared of him, at least. The MudWing's eyes softened and he relaxed as she bounded over to him. He had just been worried about his friend. Sharptongue looked to the other IceWings. One of them, a silver one, was chatting with Bull, a sleepy smile on his face. Bull seemed to be fully awake now, at least, his eyes bright and his nervousness gone. The other IceWing was the complete opposite, soft puffs of frustrated frost coming out of his mouth as he grumbled. He was a very pale blue, almost white. His underside and legs were white, as were the membranes of his pale blue wings. His tail was white after the scales stopped, but his talons were pale blue. He clearly didn't want to be there.

“Bull!” Flare was immediately by the MudWing, their wings wrapping around each other in an excited hug. “You're here!”

“Yeah, I got in!” Bull pulled away and hopped from one talon to the other. Three moons, is that what Sharptongue looked like before they got to the school? He was glad he was pretending to be indifferent. That was _embarrassing_.

“That must have been a long walk,” Pyrope spoke up. Bull nodded, but his smile didn't fade.

“It was,” he confirmed. “But I'm really happy I did it since you're all here. My winglet is really nice, too. Oh, hi Ghostcaller, Hurricane, Sharptongue!” Sharptongue thought he heard Ghostcaller tapping again, but tried to ignore it. Even if that code made him worry, he really didn't think there was any point in paying attention if he couldn't understand it.

“Wait, if he's in your winglet, then why wasn't he with you?” Flare turned her head to them, eyes narrowing slightly.

“He wanted to stay in the cave,” Hurricane said before anyone else could speak up. “We offered to let him come, but I honestly don't blame him. It's kind of overwhelming to be surrounded by so many dragonets you don't know.” Flare nodded and smiled, playfully nudging the small MudWing.

“Come on,” she said. “Let's go get something to eat. You must be starving!” Bull nodded and followed her to the piles of food, his tail still dragging behind him.

“Bull's kind of shy,” Oddeyes explained. “He's scared that others will tease him, but there's only one dragon I know who's cruel enough to do that.”

“Tarantula,” Pyrope said. There was something about the way she said that name that led Sharptongue to believe that dragon was more than just a bully, at least to Pyrope. They were close, or had been once.

“I heard my name?” A RainWing walked into the room, grinning. She was a deep blue, with shades of red, orange and gold running down her horns, underside and the ridges along her back. The membranes of her wings were a paler blue. She was missing one leg and the eye on that same side was gone as well. Out of the corner of his eye, Sharptongue saw Flare glaring at the RainWing, smoke rising from her horns and Oddeyes shifted and turned, heading over to them.

This had to be the dragon that spread that nasty rumor that made them split up. This was going to be a _long_ school year, Sharptongue could tell.

Even Hurricane didn't seem to like this dragonet; his scales had turned green with hints of purple and streaks of red. Sharptongue wasn't sure what any of those colors meant aside from red, but he was sure they weren't happy colors judging from the look on his face. He ducked his head and the purple spread. _He's ashamed,_ Sharptongue realized. _Purple means shame. Noted. But why is he ashamed?_

“Hi, Hurricane!” Tarantula made her way over to him and grinned. “Didn't expect to see you here. Isn't this great? We can finally hang out again! You were always so busy doing...whatever before.” Oh. That was it. Hurricane was ashamed of avoiding her. Judging from that lovesick look in Tarantula's eyes, Sharptongue had a pretty good idea why.

“Only if you promise not to be mean to Bull or anyone else!” Hurricane snapped suddenly, the red streaks in his scales getting bigger and more numerous with orange around the edges. There were small speckles of green scattered throughout his scales as well. _Why is he orange? I thought orange meant surprised. Does it mean angry, too? That seems pointless, having two colors mean the same thing. He seems pretty outraged. Ha, orange is outrage. Now what does that green mean?_

“Oh, come _on_ , Hurricane,” Tarantula waved a talon, as if she was shooing away an annoying fly, but Sharptongue could hear the hurt tone in her voice. “That's all in the past. I've changed, really! Ask Pyrope!”

“Yes, let's ask the dragonet you _blinded_ what a wonderful dragon you are,” Hurricane hissed. “Or how about Bull? You know, the one you _shoved off a cliff and paralyzed_?” Oh, yikes. This was some drama filled group of friends that Sharptongue had accidentally stumbled on into. He saw Tarantula flinch ever so slightly and a wave of purple swept through her scales before she huffed and turned away.

Hurricane sighed and stared down at his talons which were turning purple themselves. The red and orange faded to blue-gray, but the specks of green remained. He watched her walk away, back into the tunnels.

“She really is trying,” Pyrope spoke up. “You just need to give her a chance.”

“I'll believe it when I see it,” Hurricane muttered, walking over to the fruit.

“She meant a lot to him,” Sharptongue realized. Pyrope turned to him and nodded, a tight frown on her face.

“Yeah,” she sighed. “She did. And he meant a lot to her, but that was before he found out just how awful she was. We met him not long after I was blinded. We didn't get along at first, but he and Tarantula became fast friends. Then he found out what happened to Bull and they got into an argument. Tarantula's got some problems, but we're working on them. Accidentally blinding me made her realize she needed to and I was the only one who really wanted to help her. Anyway, she'll be okay. We expected this. She'll be back before you know it.”

“You must be my winglet,” The sleepy looking IceWing said. “Ghostcaller and Sharptongue, right? Nice to meet you, my name's Walrus.” Sharptongue glanced over at Ghostcaller, who was watching the IceWing warily. He didn't seem to trust the IceWing much, if at all.

“Yeah, that's us,” he said. “Nice to meet you, too.” Walrus didn't seem to be aware of how Ghostcaller didn't trust him. He just kept grinning in that sleepy way. Sharptongue didn't pay much attention to them and instead swept his gaze around the cave.

Several other dragons had arrived. They had been watching the argument, but then quickly turned away when they were spotted, pretending to be interested in whatever was closest to them. He spotted what looked to be another hybrid beside the river-this one was an IceWing/NightWing-speaking softly to a SeaWing, urging him to go say hello to someone.

The hybrid had the body shape as an IceWing and a few spikes along her tail, one row running parallel to her spine on the top and two others on the side like a normal IceWing, but her colors looked more like a NightWing's. Her underside and face were a very pale blue, almost white, while the row of scales running from her nose under her eyes and down her sides were all blue. Her legs and wings were that same shade of blue, but her talons were the same icy blue as her underside, spots like stars scattered around the edges of the markings. The scales along her spine and on the top of her head and brows were a darker blue, but not quite dark enough to be considered black.

The top of her wing membranes were the same shade of blue as her legs and wing fingers, but the underside of her wings were far more colorful. Where the fingers all connected, the membranes were very dark, almost black, with small white speckles that glittered like stars. The dark color slowly faded into a sky blue color throughout, and a wavy line of white ran along the edge of her wing membranes. The glittering speckles slowly got bigger the closer they were to the edge of her membranes. The larger spots reminded Sharptongue of the snow he would often see in the high mountain peaks along the edges of the Night Kingdom.

The SeaWing was a deep shade of jade-green with a paler underside, webbing and wing membranes. He flashed his scales nervously, and shook his head. His scales flashed again moments afterwards and the hybrid covered her mouth with a wing to muffle her giggles.

Two SkyWings were chatting in the back of the cave, on the opposite side of the river with a SandWing and several MudWings were daring each other to eat odd looking fruits that Sharptongue didn't recognize.

He spotted a couple other hybrids, older ones, and many other dragons he knew weren't his clawmates. One particular IceWing with a RainWing ruff around the back of his head with a bright pastel rainbow flowing through it was chatting with a MudWing. The IceWing's scales had faint hints of other colors in them that constantly changed depending on how the light hit them.  The IceWing noticed him staring and grinned, opening a wing to show off the patterns that matched those in his ruff. Sharptongue huffed and turned away. The dragons all seemed to hush again and Sharptongue turned to look at the dragon who was walking into the cave, wondering what was so eye catching about  _this_  one.

It was a SeaWing with pale, blue violet scales that looked almost pink. Strings of pearls were woven around her horns, neck and she had a gold necklace hanging around her neck under the pearls. She was wearing a few thin, golden bracelets around each arm and a golden crown with a pink gem rested upon her head, curling around the base of her horns to keep it in place. Her pinkish purple eyes scanned the cave and she grinned when she spotted the grumpy looking IceWing.

“Hi, Rime,” she greeted cheerfully. Rime suddenly seemed very alert and held his head high, looking as if he wanted to seem as regal as possible. Now that Sharptongue could get a better look at him, he noticed the gold bands around the IceWing's legs and one on his tail, not too far from where his spikes began. There was one gold ring on each horn as well and around his neck was a string of pearls and shiny blue and white gems.

“Hello, Cuttlefish,” he said with a smile. Sharptongue knew that look anywhere. The IceWing was in love with that SeaWing.

“Cuttlefish?” Hurricane echoed. “Like the princess?”

“I did hear a rumor that the two living SeaWing princesses were going to be attending the school,” Lightweaver said. “That must be her. I am not aware of any other dragons named Cuttlefish.”

Introductions were thrown around again just as four other dragons walked into the cave. The first was a dark purple NightWing with a pale pinkish underside. She had silver scales behind her eyes. _Great,_ Sharptongue thought. _Another mind reader_. The NightWing turned her head in his direction and he pretended to be interested in Snow Leopard's story about an elk she had hunted last winter. He stole a glance back at the others once he was sure the NightWing was no longer looking at him.

The second dragon was a green SkyWing with a RainWing ruff. His wing membranes and underside were golden and his eyes were green as well. Another hybrid.

The third dragon was the other SeaWing princess, Turquoise. She was a light aqua SeaWing with light blue eyes. She wasn't wearing as much jewelry as her younger sister was, but she was wearing a necklace of pearls.

The final dragon was definitely Sharptongue's clawmate, a RainWing. She was dark green with dark red talons. Her talons had silver scales scattered around them. The upperside of her wing membranes were a pale green, but their underside was dark, almost black. She had the star-like scales on the underside of her wings and they were shaped in a spiral pattern. Her ruff had a few stars in them as well, though they were smaller and constantly winked out and appeared elsewhere in her ruff. The silver scales on her talons did the same thing.

“That's my cousin, Jade,” Hurricane explained. “And that's Jungle, our cousin. Jade's dad was a NightWing and Jade's mother is my mother's sister and Jungle's dad is our uncle.” Three moons was no one in his wing _normal_?

“And that's my sister, Jewelsnatcher,” Ghostcaller added, looking to the NightWing. “You probably already know about Princess Turquoise. She's actually a good friend of Jewelsnatcher's.”

“I'm going to go get something to eat,” Osprey said suddenly. “I'll see you later. Tell Jewelsnatcher I said 'hi'.” He shot one final look to Jungle before taking off. That was...weird. Sharptongue didn't think anything could unnerve that particular SandWing, and yet something about that SkyWing, Jungle, made him turn tail and flee. From the way Jungle was staring at the fleeing SandWing, he probably knew exactly why.

“GHOSTCALLER!” Sharptongue didn't have long to wonder about the two before the RainWing, Jade, was racing over to meet them, splashes of excited yellow appearing in her scales as she suddenly slammed into the SandWing. Ghostcaller stumbled back and barked out a laugh, wings wings and talons wrapping tightly around her, his head resting on top of hers as she buried her face in his neck, pink spreading through her scales. Sharptongue's eyes narrowed in thought. He wondered if she did that with everyone, or if it was exclusive to Ghostcaller.

“It's so good to see you again!” Jade said. “I didn't know you and that nice SandWing were friends.”

“He's my brother, actually,” Ghostcaller answered.

“What!? And he didn't tell me you were here!?” Specks of red appeared in Jade's scales. Ghostcaller grinned, as if he knew something no one else did.

Introductions were given out and Sharptongue was really hoping that would be the last time he had to introduce himself to anyone in a long, _long_ while. It would have been so much easier if everyone had just been there already in the cave at the same time.

Then again, those kinds of meetings only happened in stories.

“Go on and say hi,” Sharptongue's ears picked up the sound of whispering nearby. Out of the corner of his eye he saw the IceWing/NightWing hybrid gently nudging the green SeaWing towards them. He was shaking his head, scales flashing rapidly as if he was trying to protest. The hybrid eventually won their seemingly one-sided argument and she walked with him over to the others.

“Hi,” she said. “I'm Diamond Dust and this is Angler.” Sharptongue blinked. Angler. Where had he heard that name before?

“Oh, hey, you're one of the final winglet members we haven't gotten to meet yet,” Ghostcaller said. Oh, that's right. Angler was the SeaWing who was a part of their Winglet. Sharptongue had almost forgotten about him and the SkyWing. They didn't seem to be in this mysterious little circle of friends from the looks of things.

Angler nodded, scales flashing. Cuttlefish flashed her scales back at him. Angler seemed much more relaxed after that and in no time he and Cuttlefish were flashing scales back and forth so fast it was starting to give Sharptongue a headache. As they did that, Sharptongue noticed Ghostcaller finally convince Jade to let go of him, albeit reluctantly and with a whine. She sat close to him.

“What do those scale flashes mean?” Hurricane asked, echoing Sharptongue's unspoken thoughts.

“Oh, that's Aquatic,” Turquoise answered. “Speaking is pretty difficult underwater, so we SeaWings created an entire language centered around the flashes of our scales and talon signals.” An entire language centered around something Sharptongue didn't have and knew nothing about? Three moons, he would never keep his secret at this rate. Maybe school wasn't as great as he thought it would be.

“Angler can't speak,” Diamond Dust explained. “So instead he uses Aquatic. He's pretty nervous about being here, since most dragons don't know it.”

“Oh, I know!” Cuttlefish was now grinning excitedly. “On my free day I can start up a club to teach dragons Aquatic! Even if other dragons can't exactly use it, they can still learn it. They should be able to use the talon signals, at least. Maybe we can figure out talon signals for words that don't have any.”

“That's a wonderful idea!” Diamond Dust said. She looked to Angler, who smiled and flashed his scales, nodding.

“Free days?” Bull asked. “What are those?”

“Well, we all have the same basic six classes,” Snow Leopard said. “Each day we only have one class. The teacher has an hour to tell us about the lesson and then give out any sort of work they want us to do if they have any. The rest of the day we're supposed to discuss that subject with our clawmates or something like that. We have one free day each week to do whatever we want, whether it's studying or hanging out with friends or just relaxing.”

“We won't be in class the _whole_ day,” Jewelsnatcher added when she saw the look on Bull's face. “Just an hour at the least. We have to wake up at dawn to get to class, so we can make the most of it, but the free day we don't have any classes, so we can sleep in if we want.”

That was one thing that Sharptongue couldn't quite do too easily; respond to the thoughts of another dragon as if it were a spoken conversation. It was easy to guess what a dragon was thinking in general, but exact words? That was very difficult. He had only been able to guess Hurricanes thoughts of him being grumpy because he was so used to dragons calling him that when they first met him.

Sharptongue tried to squash down another wave of anxiety when he felt Ghostcaller staring at him. Jewelsnatcher, too, was glancing over at him out of the corner of her eye. He slammed a burning, thorny wall over his thoughts and a startled look passed over Jewelsnatcher's face for a moment. Ghostcaller remained calm as always, turning his head back to the others.

Osprey had returned to the cave, but still avoided Jungle. He stood beside Jewelsnatcher and she whispered something to him. He frowned in response.

“You!” Jade's ruff flared open in fury, the red on her talons spreading through the rest of her scales. Ghostcaller was grinning and Jewelsnatcher was trying hard not to laugh, as if they knew this was going to happen. Ghostcaller tapped something and Osprey cast him a 'what?' look.

“You're Ghostcaller's brother and you didn't even bother telling me my best friend, who I haven't seen in a whole year, was here!” Jade snapped up at Osprey. Osprey's confused look turned to bewilderment as he turned his gaze down to the little hybrid, startled by her bravery. “We spent the _whole_ morning together and not once did you ever think to mention 'hey, by the way, I'm Ghostcaller's brother and he's here'? And don't you dare try to tell me that Ghostcaller never mentioned me because I know for a fact that he did, because Ghostcaller's a really great friend and he wouldn't just forget about us like that, you stupid, dumb, stupidheaded meanie mcmeanerson!”

Osprey stared at Jade, brows raised and jaw slack, but not yet dropped. He turned to Ghostcaller with a 'help me' look, but Ghostcaller and Jewelsnatcher were too busy laughing to bother trying to help him. Sharptongue managed to laugh a little himself and Hurricane was laughing just as hard as Jewelsnatcher, who was leaning on her little brother for support, wheezing. Sharptongue had to admit, he was impressed by Jade's bravery. She didn't seem at all intimidated or effected by Osprey's mostly emotionless demeanor. Then again, if she and Ghostcaller were really as close as they appeared to be, she was probably already used to that kind of thing because of him.

“Oh, right!” Hurricane gasped suddenly. “Speaking of family, I need to write a letter to my dad later and tell him how the first day went! He wants me to send him a letter at least once a week.”

“Aw, that's so sweet.” Flare smiled at him. “He must miss you a lot.”

“My mother will be so excited to hear about this, too,” Cuttlefish said, giggling. “Sure, she knew I would be in classes with dragons but other tribes, but I have so many new friends on just the first day!”

“My dads are going to throw a massive party when they hear I made any friends at all,” Oddeyes snickered, shooting a small glance to Sharptongue.

 _He's giving me an excuse to leave,_ Sharptongue realized. _Oddeyes, you intelligent pile of bird dung, you're the best friend I've ever had._

“Speaking of classes,” Sharptongue said, turning and headed back out of the cave, purposefully letting his voice waver as he thought as much sad things he could think of. Even if he kept his exact thoughts hidden, he could still let the emotions slip through the barrier. It worked, from the way Jewelsnatcher and Ghostcaller were looking at him. “I'm going to go find my schedule.”

“Don't you want to stay and chat?” Jade asked, tilting her head to the side.

“No need to be shy, silly,” Cuttlefish giggled. “We're all friends here.” Rime mumbled something under his breath, but Walrus was nodding in agreement with Cuttlefish's statement.

“We won't bite,” Walrus stated.

“I'm good.” Sharptongue hurried away before they could try to convince him to stay. He heard Lightweaver say something to the others, but he didn't quite catch it.

He made it back to the safety of his cave and flopped back down onto the bed, grabbing the scroll from the rack next to his bed and opening it up to check his schedule. _Day 1; biology, day 2; literature, day 3; free, day 4; history, day 5; math, day 6; music, day 7; art._ Math was something that was mostly new to classes, having been added just a couple years before. As far as he knew, it was a difficult subject for a lot of dragons. All those numbers and formulas just got so complicated and it was easy to get mixed up when trying to solve a problem. He was not looking forward to that class.

“Sharptongue?” Lightweaver poked her head into the cave and walked in. “Is everything alright?”

“No,” he hissed. “Everything is horrible and I hate it and I want to go home.” Lightweaver blinked, frowning in confusion.

“I thought you wanted to be here,” she said.

“I thought I did, too!” Sharptongue threw his wings over his head. “But there's dragons who wear their emotions on their scales and I don't know what any of those colors mean and there's other dragons who have an entire language I've never even heard of before today and other mind readers! Past me was an idiot for not seeing any of this coming and he should have never applied to this school.”

“It's going to be okay, Sharptongue,” Lightweaver laid down beside him on the bed, draping her wing over him to comfort him. “I know it's a lot and it's going to take a while to get used to, but you'll get through this. I know you will.”

“They'll hate me,” Sharptongue mumbled. “I'll be the laughing stock of the school.”

“No, you will not,” Lightweaver said. “Rainforest NightWings don't have powers.”

“But they're still superstitious about powers,” Sharptongue pointed out. “It's easy to tell if a dragon is a Rainforest NightWing or not. They clearly don't care for or want the NightWing powers. I'm the only NightWing in all of Pyrrhia from outside of the Rainforest who doesn't have powers! Even a _SandWing_ has them!”

“I can't tell you much about my friends or some of their abilities, but I can tell you right now that their powers are no more perfect than yours.” Rose was standing in the doorway, a thoughtful look on her face. “I'm sure you've figured out about Hurricane's inability to change the shade of his scales? Jungle can't change his at all and Jade's scales are the same as Hurricane's. I can see the future, but only the brightest paths. My brother's aren't that perfect either, really. The only dragon I know whose powers are perfect are my sister's.”

“It's not nice to eavesdrop,” Lightweaver said.

“I suppose that makes me a dragon who isn't nice, then,” Rose said, smiling ever so slightly. Lightweaver stared at her, taken aback by the reply. The look on her face, one he normally didn't see from Lightweaver, was almost enough to make Sharptongue smile.

“And you came in here to tell me to feel better because a hybrid's powers aren't as strong as a purebreds'?” he hissed.

“Not quite,” Rose answered. “I'm not telling you to feel better or worse. I just figured it might help to know you're not alone. Trust me, Sharptongue, dragons are too busy worrying about their own personal problems to care about any one else's. Your secret is safe and yours alone to tell.”

“I don't think your friends would agree,” Lightweaver huffed. She then frowned as Rose walked over and plucked the scroll from the rack beside the sand pit. “You shouldn't be snooping around in your brother's stuff.” In all the excitement of meeting his clawmates and worrying about his secret, he hadn't thought about why the sand pit was so far from the window. Maybe it was because he was half NightWing and preferred the darkness instead of the light.

“I'm not nice, remember?” Rose hummed, waving the scroll for a moment before opening it and setting it down beside Sharptongue's to compare the schedules. “You share a free day, music and art with him. You have biology with me.”

“Well, that's good,” Lightweaver said. “You can help each other out in class. Creative classes, too. Sharptongue, you love art, I'm sure you'll make wonderful things together.” Sharptongue shrugged. He was decent at art, but he wasn't as good as some of the other dragons he'd met. Reading and writing were more of his thing. Music? He was pretty sure he was tone deaf. Rose rolled Ghostcaller's scroll back up and sat it back down in the scroll rack.

“I know it seems hard, Sharptognue, but Lightweaver's right,” she said. “At least give it a try. I'm positive that you and Ghostcaller will become very good friends. Now, as far as you two are concerned, I was never here.”

Before they could say anything else, Rose turned and headed out of the cave. A few moments later, Sharptongue heard Ghostcaller's voice and then the SandWing was in the cave, checking through his bag that he had left in his scroll rack.

“What did she touch?” he asked, tail tip twitching. “If she touched it I will do an acrobatic flip off a cliff, I swear-”

“She only wanted to see your schedule,” Lightweaver said. Sharptongue peered around to see what Ghostcaller was looking for. Ghostcaller seemed to find it, because he relaxed and put his bag back on the rack. What was he looking for?

“We have a free day, art and music together,” Sharptongue said.

“Oh, that's cool,” Ghostcaller took his schedule and looked through it himself.

“Hey, let me see!” Hurricane was suddenly in the room and beside his friend, grinning. He turned and grabbed his own schedule to look at it.

“Oh, Ghostcaller, we have...no classes together.” Small specks of green spread through his scales, but were then quickly replaced by orange. “Well, that ought to be a crime! Why can't I have any classes with my best friend?”

“As far as I know, our schedules are created at random,” Lightweaver said. “I don't know the exact process, really.”

“Well, your free day is the day I have music class,” Ghostcaller pointed out as he looked over Hurricane's schedule. “You could hang out with me then.” Hurricane nodded, scales fading back to their normal blue, yellow and green color scheme.

“Hey, can I see that?” Hurricane asked, pointing at Sharptongue's schedule. Sharptongue hesitated before he handed it over. “We have biology together!”

“Biology is supposed to be for learning about the different tribes, right?” They all turned to look as Bull and Walrus walked into the cave, Angler right behind them. They each had their own schedules with them.

“Yes, Bull,” Lightweaver said. “Biology is where we will learn how each tribe is different from one another. I feel like they should call it a different name, considering we'll be going over the culture of each tribe and not just their appearance and physical traits.” Bull walked over and picked up his own schedule, setting it down beside the others. Walrus grinned and did the same and soon Angler had joined in. Sharptongue didn't pay them much mind as they compared schedules.

“Sharptongue, you and I have mu...um. How do you pronounce this?” Bull hesitantly held out his schedule, pointing to day one.

“Music,” Sharptongue answered. “You...Don't MudWings know how to read?” Bull shook his head and sat his schedule back down.

“Not really,” he answered softly, picking up his tail and holding it close. “MudWings don't exactly focus on things like reading or writing. We have to learn how to survive on our own, without anyone to help us. But that's why I'm here; I want to learn. I really like stories, but I hate having to ask others to read them to me.”

“Hey, be nice, Sharptongue,” Hurricane said. “Just because you're a mind reader doesn't mean you can act like you're better than everyone else!”

“I'm not acting like I'm better!” Sharptongue snapped back. “Reading is a basic skill!”

“That's enough!” Ghostcaller hissed, raising his tail threateningly. “Come on, guys, it's our first day. I know it's overwhelming and exciting, but we can't be arguing with each other already.” He then turned to Sharptongue. “Just because reading is a basic skill for you NightWings doesn't mean it's that way for other tribes. A lot of RainWings don't know how to read or write either. Besides, you're scaring Bull.”

Hurricane muttered an apology to Bull, who was clutching his tail with a terrified look on his face, and ducked his head, purple shame spreading through his scales for a moment. There was something about the way Ghostcaller was digging his claws into the ground, something about the way his tail twitched towards an unseen threat that didn't seem right. Sure, Ghostcaller had been scared earlier, but this was the first time Sharptongue had seen him actually loose his cool. Sharptongue found himself inching a little farther away from the SandWing.

“It's okay,” Bull said, calming himself down. “So can you really read minds?” Sharptongue pointed to the scales behind his eyes.

“Any NightWing with these can read minds,” he answered. “Sorry if I seemed rude, I've never actually met any dragons from the other tribes before. The only information I can get is from your mind or from scrolls. It's just...”

“Really overwhelming?” Walrus tried. “I know I look pretty calm, but I'm really happy to be here, but kind of nervous myself. We'll get through it, though.” Sharptongue nodded and stared down at his talons. Should he tell them? It didn't seem right to keep such a secret from the dragons he was supposed to be friends with. They seemed accepting enough, at least, with the way they had been treating Bull and each other. They certainly didn't seem to care much for Hurriance's odd scales.

“What happened back there anyway?” Ghostcaller asked. “You just kind of ran off in the middle of a conversation.” All eyes turned to him and Lightweaver gave him a worried look.

“Yeah, that was kind of weird,” Hurricane agreed. “Did we say something wrong?”

“My parents were famous traveling artists,” he said, poking at the blankets with a claw. “All of Pyrrhia knew them and admired them.” He felt a true pang of sorrow this time. He'd seen their artwork before; hung up on Starfall's walls, and he really wished he could have met them. He didn't even have any paintings of them to show him what they looked like. For some reason, Starfall had always told him not to mention them outside their home and no one in the rest of the tribe had mentioned them before. Sharptongue guessed it was probably because no one had gotten over their deaths.

Ghostcaller dug his claws into the ground again, frowning sympathetically at him.

“So you're under a lot of pressure to be just like them,” Ghostcaller said, tipping his head to the side. “They weren't around and you had a strained relationship with them, if any at all.” Sharptongue nodded.

“What do you mean by 'were'?” Hurricane asked. The realization dawned on him the second he finished that sentence and he frowned, wings drooping. “Oh. _Oh._ I'm so sorry, Shaptongue, if I'd known I wouldn't have brought up my dad.”

“I didn't know them,” Sharptongue said. “They died the day I hatched. I wish I could have known them, but I think it's a lot better that I didn't. It doesn't hurt as much this way.” Lightweaver draped her wing back over him.

Ghostcaller was still frowning at him. The frown then vanished as he spoke, “Sorry you had to go through that.” He didn't seem sorry at all, but then again he was speaking in that emotionless monotone voice again so it was impossible to tell. “My mother named me while I was still in the egg, but my dad raised Jewelsnatcher and I before...Well, when we moved out of the Rainforest and to Sanctuary, we met up with Rose and Osprey. Mom died before we got there, so I never knew her.” Both of his parents were gone as well? Maybe they had more in common than Sharptongue originally thought. Still, it was odd how he talked so calmly about his mother's death and avoided admitting the death of his father. Even if he had never met her, Sharptongue figured he would still be upset about her death.

“My dad wasn't 'round much either,” Walrus said. “We lived on an outpost on the outskirts of the kingom. I had to teach myself, mostly. I can read and write a little, but not too well. There's a lot of things I still don't know.”

Angler flashed his scales and then got a frustrated look on his face and poked at the corner of his scroll with a talon.

“He said that he wasn't always mute,” Ghostcaller translated. “But some kind of accident made him lose his voice and damaged his gills. He can still breathe underwater, but not for longer than a few hours. His parents tried to help, but they weren't always very supportive.” Angler nodded.

“How do you know Aquatic?” Lightweaver questioned.

“There were a few SeaWings in Sanctuary who taught it to me,” Ghostcaller answered. “I'm not fluent in it, but I know enough to understand what they're trying to say. Plus, you know, mind reader.” Sharptongue's eyes narrowed slightly as he thought back to what Rose had said about Ghostcaller's powers not being perfect.

“Ghostcaller, since were giving out family secrets, I need to tell you mine.” Hurricane shifted awkwardly, staring at his best friend with a serious look on his face. He took a deep breath and then said, “I really, _really_ like Jewelsnatcher. Like, a lot.” Ghostcaller slowly looked to his friend, that emotionless look on his face.

“How dare you?” he gasped dramatically.

“I'm sorry, but she's just so _great_!”

“That's breaking the bro code, Hurricane! Bros don't date bros' sisters!”

Lightweaver smiled and shook her head, getting up.

“I should get back to my cave,” she said. “If you need anything, Sharptongue, just tell me, okay?” Sharptongue nodded and watched her slip out, barely even listening to the two bickering friends. He heard both sides mention something about Jade before Ghostcaller finally threw his wings up in defeat and gave up trying to argue.

“Hi, new guy just popping in at the end of the weirdest conversation I have ever heard,” A new voice said. They all turned to the doorway where a yellow-orange SkyWing was standing, a bag slung over his shoulders. He must have just gotten to the school and he had to be Lightning.

“We'll probably be having a lot of conversations like that,” Walrus said to him. Lightning shrugged and sheepishly walked over to his cave. It seemed a majority of his winglet members had their own problems, just like him, even if they were just family related. Though, some of them definitely were no more perfect than he was. Maybe that's why they were all stuck together; a band of little misfits who didn't fit in anywhere except for maybe with each other. It wasn't exactly a happy thought, but it wasn't a sorrowful one either. It was a little comforting, actually, knowing that there was at least one place he belonged.

Even if he didn't want them to know his secret just yet, Sharptongue decided that he might trust them enough someday to tell them.

 


	4. ~The First Day~

Sharptongue yawned as he woke up, poking his head out of the bundle of blankets he was curled up inside of. For a moment, he wondered why Lightweaver or Starfall hadn't woken him up, but then quickly remembered where he was and what day it was. He hurried out of bed, shaking the cocoon of blankets off, and turned to grab his bag. A snore made him pause and Sharptongue let out a long, slow sigh.

“Hey, brainless lizard, get up!” he snapped, smacking the hammock with his tail as he turned to the door. Hurricane let out a yelp, head shooting up and turning to look at him. His orange scales faded back to their normal blue and he stepped down out of the hammock.

“What was that for?” he asked, a slight whine in his voice.

“It's the first day of school,” Sharptongue replied as he headed out of the cave, catching a glimpse of pink and yellow swirls spreading through Hurricane's scales.

“I almost forgot!” he exclaimed. “Thanks for waking me, Sharptongue! I knew you were a good friend. If you weren't, you would have probably just left me to sleep and miss the _entire_ first day.”

“I'm going to knock you out with my tail and tie you up in your own hammock and make you miss the entire first _week_ if you don't stop talking immediately!”

Hurricane was still grinning as they made it to the prey center for a quick breakfast. All the other dragonets had arrived overnight and they were all swarming around the cave, eating and getting to know one another. Sharptongue looked around, noticing one particular hybrid was missing.

“Hey, Hurricane,” he said.

“Yeah?” Hurricane looked over his shoulder as he reached out to grab a banana.

“Where's Ghostcaller?” Sharptongue asked, frowning. “He wasn't in the cave and he's not here, either.” Hurricane shrugged and peeled the banana, taking a huge bite out of it.

“Probably with Osprey,” he answered. “I figured he'd want to hang out with us, you know, since he hasn't seen me or Jade since he lived in the Rainforest Kingdom a year ago. Oh! I bet he's with Jade!” Sharptongue was about to bite into a fish, but then stopped.

“Wait if Ghostcaller hasn't seen you in a year, how do you know about Osprey?” he asked. “Jade certainly didn't know him considering she went on a long, insulting rant about it to him.”

Hurricane swallowed the last of his banana. “Well, I don't either, actually. I didn't meet him until yesterday, but Jungle mentioned him a few times. I know Osprey and Ghostcaller were good friends, but I didn't know Osprey was Ghostcaller's brother.”

“Why didn't he send you any letters?” Sharptongue continued. “Surely he cared enough for his friends to send them letters?”

“It's not that simple.” Hurricane reached for another fruit. “There were dragons Ghostcaller didn't want tracking him down, so we had to send messages through Jungle since he was always going back and forth between the rainforest and Sanctuary. Jungle's always had a heart for adventure, but Sanctuary was as far as his mom would let him go at the time.”

That response raised much more questions than it gave answers. Who was Ghostcaller so afraid of and what had he done to make them so angry that he couldn't even send his best friend letters? Was that dragon still trying to find him or had they given up? Were his friends and clawmates in danger because of that?

That final thought didn't help Sharptongue feel any better about this whole thing, so he decided to push it to the back of his mind and think about it again never.

The two eventually headed to their Biology class once they were done with breakfast. The cave wasn't too fancy, but there were several scrolls with featuring different dragons from different Tribes hanging on the walls. Many of these scrolls were showing muscles and bones and some of the abilities and how they worked.

Their Biology teacher was a blue SeaWing who was currently facing away from them, searching through some scrolls in a box.

“Hello, students,” the SeaWing greeted. “Welcome to class, I'll be with you in just a moment.”

“Hello, Hurricane, Sharptongue,” Rose greeted from her spot near the front of the cave. Hurricane grinned and bounded over to her, immediately beginning a conversation about how the day was going for the two of them and what their other classes might be like.

The first real day of the school was the only day in which a dragon would unwillingly have more than one class. Each class didn't last long and was meant for introductions and for the teacher to give a brief summary of what they would be learning.

Sharptongue heard the gong ring out, signaling each dragon only had about a minute left to get to class. Horse hurried in with another MudWing and a RainWing right behind him.

Horse ended up sitting alone as the MudWing and RainWing sat close to Hurricane, Sharptongue and Rose.

“Hello, class.” Their teacher finally turned to face them, smiling politely. He was pale blue-green with darker gills. “My name is Oarfish and I will be teaching you Biology. We won't have long together today, but normally we will have about an hour or so of teaching time and work time before the day ends and you can go on your way. It will get fairly redundant today as in each class we will have to introduce ourselves.

“So, with that said, again my name is Oarfish and I will be teaching you biology. I fear the deep ocean because there are small yet terrifying things down there and so I keep away from it. Now then, you can go ahead and start us off.” He nodded to Rose.

“My name is Rose and I enjoy the art of literature,” Rose began. “I have a talent for knitting, which my friend Hurricane here got me into.” She gave Hurricane a nudge with her wing. Hurricane laughed and grinned back at her.

“Hi everyone, I'm Hurricane! I grew up in the Rainforest Kingdom and Rose is an awesome friend because after my pet rabbit died she knitted me a little plush version of it.” Hurricane's scales were more yellow than blue today from how excited and happy he was. Sharptongue was pretty sure there was a bit of pink in there, too.

“I'm Striking.” The other RainWing held his head high, waves of colors passing through his scales. He kept looking at Rose out of the corner of his eye, small splashes of emerald and red appearing in his scales when he saw she wasn't paying much attention.

 _He's trying to impress her._ Sharptongue fought back the urge to roll his eyes. He hadn't known Rose for long, or at all, but she didn't strike him as the kind of dragonet who liked someone who showed off.

The RainWing continued and Rose finally turned her attention to him, “My favorite color is yellow and I adore cats.” Rose seemed a little interested at the mention of cats.

“Do you have one as a pet?” she asked. Striking nodded.

“Yes, she's back at my cave right now, probably sleeping,” he answered, ruff fluttering.

“Maybe we could schedule a little play date between her and my cat, Jaspers.” She was up to something, Sharptongue could tell that much. Maybe she had noticed his flirting attempts and was just playing along.

“That would be wonderful!” Striking didn't seem to notice anything off. “I'm looking forward to it.”

“I'm Sludge,” The MudWing spoke up. “I like rabbits, too and drawing.” Hurricane edged his way around the room so he could sit beside her, whispering in hushed voices about their favorite kinds of rabbits.

“I am Horse and I dream of being a famous inventor.” The massive hybrid held his head high. Sharptongue stopped paying much attention after the others began to ask him about his various inventions and ideas, but once the room quieted down and turned to him he remembered he hadn't introduced himself yet.

“I'm Sharptongue,” he said quickly. “And I like the color gray.” He saw Striking roll his eyes and shot him a look, adding a quick, “I'm also a mind reader so unless you want to repeat that out loud I suggest you be careful of your thoughts, Striking.” Striking's scales turned into a mottled mess of lime green, dark green and orange for a moment. Rose chuckled softly and the RainWing glared at Sharptongue, letting out a soft hiss.

The gong saved the two from a fight. Sharptongue quickly turned and headed out of the cave before Striking could say or do anything. Hurricane hurried to follow him, frowning slightly.

“What did he think about you?” he asked. “It sure didn't look like it was nice.”

“I really don't like talking about others' thoughts,” Sharptongue said quickly. “It's not exactly, a nice thing considering thoughts are supposed to be private.”

“Then how come you listened to him?” Hurricane stood in front of him, blocking his way. Sharptongue let out a growl of irritation.

“Mind readers can normally block out the thoughts of other dragons,” he explained. “but it's difficult if those thoughts are directly about them. Can you move? We need to get to our next class.”

“Come on, Hurricane, we have history together next.” Rose walked over to them, saving Sharptongue from her friend. Sharptongue gave her a thankful look. Hurricane looked a bit disappointed, but then nodded, following Rose down the hall. He heard him call a hello to someone and after that Ghostcaller came into view, a dragonet who Sharptongue _really_ hoped he would never see right behind him.

“Oh, hey, just the dragonet I was looking for,” Ghostcaller said as he spotted Sharptongue.

“Why were you looking for me of all dragons?” Sharptongue questioned, a slight growl in his voice. “It had better be good, because I'm pretty sure you're making me late for my next class.” The stoic hybrid stared down at Sharptongue.

“We need to talk later,” he said. Sharptongue's eyes narrowed at the SandWing. “Look, I don't mean you any harm or anything. I just want to get to know my cavemate a little better.”

“Cavemate?” Sharptongue echoed, a brow raised.

“What we call dragonets in our winglet who we share a cave with,” Ghostcaller explained. “Hurricane's our cavemate, too. Anyway, we have a free hour together, so can we talk then?” Sharptongue hesitated. He did want to learn more about his Clawmates, especially his Winglet members, but the SandWing still really unnerved him. Did he know? No, there was no way he could have found out so soon.

“Yeah, okay, sounds good.” Sharptongue already regretted agreeing to it, but he didn't get to dwell on it for long. Hiddenheart hurried to stand beside Ghostcaller, grinning.

Hiddenheart was a NightWing with hints of purple tinted blue in her scales and blue eyes. She'd grown up with him back in the Night Kingdom and he had figured out very quickly that her personality was not as pretty as she appeared to be. A part of Sharptongue wondered if she only applied for Jade Mountain Academy because he did.

“Hi, Sharptongue!” she greeted happily. “I didn't realize you were here, but I am _very_ glad you are. Now we don't have to worry about being apart!”

“Friend of yours?” Ghostcaller asked. Sharptongue glared at him and Hiddenheart tipped her head to the side, then blinked.

“Didn't you call Sharptongue your cavemate?” she asked Ghostcaller. He nodded and she continued, “Oh, wow! I didn't think a mysterious SandWing like you would be sharing a cave with Sharptongue of all dragons. Now we can hang out all the time!” She leaned against the Sandwing and Ghostcaller draped his wing over her, a smirk tugging at the edges of his mouth. Sharptongue growled furiously at the sight. _Don't tell me they've been flirting the entire way here._ That thought alone made him want to throw up.

“Well, it's _great_ to see you two are getting along,” Sharptongue spat bitterly, baring his teeth at the two of them. Hiddenheart's grin grew wider.

“Yep! We have biology next,” she said. “Maybe we'll get to work on a project together! Oh, Ghostcaller, that would be so much fun!”

“You know, Lightweaver is here too,” Sharptongue pointed out. Hiddenheart waved her talon dismissively.

“Yeah, yeah, whatever,” she huffed, clearly annoyed. “We don't have to worry about her since we don't share any classes outside of my free hour. I can work around that, though. Unfortunately, my future visions told me that I don't have any classes with you, either, Sharptongue.” She sighed sadly. “Oh, well. I do have Biology with Ghostcaller, though!”

Sharptongue let out another growl, louder than the last one. Hiddenheart was given a second chance, a school _full_ of dragonets desperate to learn and possibly find love and yet she was still following him around like a little lost puppy, using Lightweaver as an excuse to get close to him and now she had completely _ditched his sister_ in favor for his _mysterious_ cavemate, most likely going to use him in the same way she had used Lightweaver.

Sharptongue still didn't like Ghostcaller much. He found him annoying and didn't trust him at all. Yes, Sharptongue was curious and wanted to know more about him, but that was mostly because Sharptongue wanted to get to the bottom of this dragonet's past and why he acted so calm and emotionless all the time, why he was also so alert and ready for a fight. Insufferable or not, no dragon deserved to be stuck with someone like Hiddenheart.

Ghostcaller was staring down at Sharptongue, claws digging into the ground and his tail curling up slightly for just a moment. He could probably _see_ the fiery anger rolling off of the little NightWing.

“Well it was _wonderful_ seeing you again,” Sharptongue spat, his voice dripping with venom and sarcasm. “But I need to get to my literature class, so if you two pungent columns of hot rotting carcasses would excuse me so I won't be late after wasting my time on this, it would be greatly appreciated.” He roughly shoved past Ghostcaller, who barely even moved. He heard Hiddenheart let out a dreamy sigh and let out a gagging noise. He was pretty sure he could still feel Ghostcaller watching him as he left.

Sharptongue made it to his literature class right as the gong rang out and sat beside Lightweaver. He wasn't sure what to say or if he should say anything at all. Lightweaver had _really_ liked Hiddenheart. His sister looked crestfallen, staring down at her talons with her tail curled close to her.

“Lightweaver, about Hiddenheart...” he started.

“It's fine,” Lightweaver sighed. “I knew she was trying to use me. I thought that maybe if I went along with it I could convince her I was a real friend, that we could be friends. I was foolish. I should have known it would end like this. I know you did not like her much and I am sorry for forcing you to put up with that.” Sharptongue pressed close to his sister, claws scraping against the stone. He wished Hiddenheart was there so he could hit her in the face with the table.

“It's fine, Lightweaver,” Sharptongue said. “It's not your fault. She ditched you for Ghostcaller. He flirted with her and I'm pretty sure he's convinced her to torment me later.”

“That's Ghostcaller for you,” Jade said. Sharptongue hadn't even realized she was there. “He doesn't mean anything by it, Sharptongue. He flirts with other dragons all the time. He's really protective of his friends, though. I'm sure that if you tell him what she's done in the past, he won't want to hang around her anymore. He doesn't like horrible dragons like that.”

“We're not friends,” Sharptongue snapped. “I can't stand him!”

“Well, of course you're friends, silly,” Jade said. “He told you about his gift to Hurricane, after all. He doesn't normally talk about that stuff with dragons who aren't his friends.”

“His what now?” Sharptongue questioned, frowning. Was Jade crazy?

“Alright, class, pay attention now.” He turned his attention to his literature teacher, a SkyWing. “Now then, we'll be going through quick introductions. Who would like to go first...?”

 

“Introductions are officially my least favorite part of the school year,” Sharptongue groaned as he flopped down in front of a table, chin resting on top of it. They had a little time for lunch, but Sharptongue and Ghostcaller had their free time after lunch, so they weren't in any rush to get anything to eat like the other dragons swarming around them. It was just the two of them at the table until their friends came back from getting food.

“At least we won't do it again after today,” Ghostcaller said. Sharptongue grumbled and turned to glare at him.

“What do you want?” he asked. “You said we needed to talk.”

“So what's with you and Hiddenheart?” Ghostcaller asked. “Your relationship seems-dare I say it-complicated. You looked pretty jealous when I was hanging out with her. Angry that I'm stealing your girl?”

“I know this is not what you wanted to talk about,” Sharptongue snapped at him. “Because if it is, save yourself the trouble and go drown yourself in the river before I do it myself. You didn't even know we knew each other until after you said we needed to talk so you better give me the real reason or I will do a flying leap off the side of the mountain, do you hear me!?” Several dragons turned to look at them, immediately looking away when Sharptongue glared and bared his teeth at them.

“Sigh,” Ghostcaller sighed. “You're making this more difficult than it needs to be. I want to know you better. We're cavemates. We need to work together on this being friends thing, and I think the best way to do that is to share our feelings about dragons we may or may not be crushing on.”

“She's a pathetic, desperate NightWing who used my sister in an attempt to get close to me,” Sharptongue growled. “She ditched Lightweaver for you because you're going to be spending a lot more time with me than Lightweaver now since we're stuck living together and stuck in so many classes together. Lightweaver is really upset about it, too. She liked Hiddenheart a _lot_ and Hiddenheart just blew her off like she was a pile of rotten meat! The fact that you think I actually like her even a little bit is highly insulting and so revolting, I would rather dive head first into a pile of cow dung and eat my way out of it than hear you even _think_ of such a thing ever again!” Ghostcaller was silent for a moment.

“Sorry,” he said, startling Sharptongue into silence. “I didn't think she was really _that_ bad when I first met her. It's kind of hard to tell when you like someone or not since you seem to hate everyone and everything.”

“I hate the dragons who deserve my hatred,” Sharptongue snapped.

“So, when is your hatching day? I'll tell you yours if you tell me mine.” Sharptongue was happy for the subject change, if not a bit surprised and somewhat suspicious.

“It's the thirteenth day of the sixth month,” he answered. “Yours?”

“The third day of the twelfth month,” Ghostcaller said. “I hatched in the middle of the night and Rose hatched just before sunrise, so we celebrate her hatching day on the fourth day. Osprey and I share a hatching day, as do Rose and Jewelsnatcher. Crazy, right?”

“Talons and scales is anyone in your family _normal_?” Sharptongue questioned. He noticed the edges of Ghostcaller's mouth twitch slightly.

“I think mine is very normal compared to Hurricane's family, thank you very much,” Ghostcaller said.

“Their entire family is a genetic mess, they don't count,” Sharptongue huffed.

“ _My_ entire family is a genetic mess,” Ghostcaller shot back. “My brother's pure SandWing, my older sister's pure NightWing, my sister and I are half NightWing, half SandWing. Need I go on? I'm pretty sure you're not a purebred NightWing, either. You've got a little bit of SeaWing in you judging by your snout.”

“My snout isn't even the slightest bit SeaWing!” Sharptongue snapped, covering said snout with his talons. “Shut up!”

“Hi, guys!” Hiddenheart bounded over to them. Sharptongue wanted to breathe fire in her face, but instead he quickly got up. She wasn't worth getting expelled over.

“I'm getting something to eat,” he said. “You go ahead and chat or whatever.” He made his way over to the pile of meat in the corner, stealing a glance over his shoulder. Hiddenheart was snuggled up close to Ghostcaller again, smiling as they chatted, his wing draped over her, though he looked a bit uncomfortable. Snarling, Sharptongue grabbed a pig that was big enough to feed the three of them.

As he headed back, he noticed Jade looking rather furious, glaring at Hiddenheart from across the cave as she walked over to a pile of fruit. Apparently something had happened between the two while Sharptongue's back had been turned to them. Before Sharptongue could ask anything, Hiddenheart spotted him.

“Isn't he wonderful?” Sharptongue heard her ask Ghostcaller. _He's probably going to flirt with her,_ Sharptongue thought. _He's going to agree and encourage her to keep tormenting me-_

“Yeah, but you aren't.” Ghostcaller's curt reply made Sharptongue stop in his tracks, almost dropping his pig in shock. Ghostcaller pulled his wing back away from Hiddenheart and Sharptongue could see that she had grabbed it and draped it over her herself. She let out a very offended noise.

“I'll have you know I am _very_ wonderful, you half-bred rat!” she screed. “I was trying to be your friend because Sharptongue and I are in love-”

“Except you're not,” Ghostcaller interrupted her. “It's clear to me that you've done nothing but use his sister to get to him and he knows it. He wants _nothing_ to do with you and frankly, neither do I. “You act all nice and innocent but on the inside you're just a frothing, rabid badger who cares only for herself and is willing to ditch dragons who truly care about her just so she can get what she wants. You hate hybrids and yet you pretend to like me because you know I'm Sharptongue's cavemate and I'm going to be around him a majority of the time. I was planning on giving you a chance, maybe convince you that hybrids aren't that bad or that you can't do whatever you want and ignore the feelings of others, but all you want is Sharptongue and you care nothing for improving yourself. You insulted my friend for something she can't control. I do not tolerate dragons who hate others for no reason and I do not tolerate dragons who use others and lie like that.

“Sharptongue and Lightweaver deserve far better than the likes of _you_. Stay away from my family, stay way from Lightweaver and Sharptongue, stay away from the rest of my cavemates, stay away from my friends and stay away from me.”

Sharptongue stared after him as the hybrid whipped around, heading in the direction of their cave. A crowd had gathered to watch the scene and murmurs began to spread through it. A majority of the dragons agreed with Ghostcaller on the matter, but the general question of “Who was _that_?” was plastered on every dragon's face and probably echoing in their minds as well.

Sharptongue dropped his pig and raced after Ghostcaller, still a bit startled the SandWing had actually said all that to Hiddenheart's face. He didn't even catch up to him until they reached their cave and by then Ghostcaller was laying in his sand pit of a bed. _How is he so fast?_

“Ghostcaller?” He stepped into the cave, unsure if he should sit on his own bed or join Ghostcaller in his. Ghostcaller responded by scooting over to give him enough room. Sharptongue hesitantly stepped into the sand and sat down beside him. “You didn't have to do that.”

“I did,” Ghostcaller said. “She's worse than you think, Sharptongue. I thought that maybe she had something against just SandWings, but she hates all hybrids in general for absolutely no reason at all.”

“What?” Sharptongue frowned. He wasn't aware of that part of Hiddenheart. Even if he had never quite met any hybrids personally, Starfall had told him they weren't all that rare in the Night Kingdom, preferring to keep to the edges of small towns. NightWings were travelers and so they were the tribe with the most known hybrids and were probably the most welcoming of them as well. He didn't know there were any NightWings who disliked them.

“I was listening to her thoughts during biology,” Ghostcaller explained. “Normally if a dragon doesn't like a specific tribe, there's a reason for it. Fear, a bad relationship, maybe someone in that tribe did something to their family, but with her I felt none of that. She just...hates us. For no reason.”

“Are you _sure_ it's not just SandWings?” Sharptongue asked. “I mean, I know it's not true and you're nothing like the stereotype, but SandWings kind of do have a bad reputation of being thieves and liars, no offense.” Ghostcaller shook his head.

“None taken,” he said. “But I'm sure. There's a MudWing/SeaWing hybrid in our class and she felt the same amount of disgust towards her as she did with me. The MudWing is curious about NightWings and tried to speak to her, but Hiddenheart snapped her and told her to get lost. She was really rude to Jade as well and told her to back off when she tried to hug me.”

“I'm sorry.” Sharptongue poked at the sand with a talon. “I didn't know that about her. She never had any thoughts like that before back in the Night Kingdom.”

Ghostcaller shrugged. “It's fine. As far as I can tell, she's the only dragon here with that mindset. Hopefully she'll change for the better after being surrounded by so many hybrids. So what was the Night Kingdom like anyway? I tried to ask her about it, but all she wanted to talk about was you.”

“It was pretty normal, I guess,” Sharptongue answered. “It's not really any different from the other Kingdoms, as far as I know.”

“I meant what does it look like.” Ghostcaller nudged him. “Didn't Darkstalker enchant it to never fall into the ocean again after he brought it back?”

“Yeah,” Sharptongue answered. “It's kind of mountainous, especially at the very edge. There's a lot of open sky and forests. Near the palace the dragons live in the cliffs with the wealthier dragons living higher up. Where I was living, we didn't have a whole lot of caves in the mountain, so we lived in an actual house instead. It was a pretty nice neighborhood, actually. There were caves higher up in the mountain close by, but again those were for wealthy families. We lived a little under halfway up the mountain, at the edge of the city. There were quite a few caves along the beach as well, though not nearly as many as other places.”

“Did you ever go down to the beach?” Ghostcaller asked. Sharptongue nodded.

“Yeah, sometimes.” He smiled a little. “Every now and then, my mother would take Lightweaver and I to the beach. Oddeyes would come with us sometimes.”

“Oddeyes?” Ghostcaller asked.

“The yellow NightWing with the weird eyes,” Sharptongue said. “He moved to the Night Kingdom a year ago from the rainforest. Speaking of which, did you ever see him before?”

“No,” Ghostcaller answered. “He must have lived closer to the RainWings. I lived in a NightWing village, so I didn't get to see much of anyone aside from Hurricane. Jade lived in the village with her grandfather, who's a NightWing, and Hurricane would come down to visit almost every day.”

“Since you got to ask me something personal, I get to ask you something personal now. What's your relationship with Jade?” This was a question he'd been mulling over for some time since their meeting the day before. Jade had gotten Ghostcaller to laugh not once, but _twice_. Granted, that second time was because she'd yelled at his brother and it was downright hilarious to watch, but it still counted in Sharptongue's mind.

“Okay, okay.” Ghostcaller looked away from him, tapping the sand nervously. Sharptongue wondered if that was just normal, nervous tapping or if he was subconsciously tapping out a message in that weird code he made with his brother, not that it mattered since the sand muffled any noise from his claws anyway. “I _might_ have had a crush on her back when I was living in the rainforest. It was just a crush, so the feelings are gone now, but she's still a really close friend of mine. You better not hold this over me. It's bad enough Hurricane refuses to let me live it down.”

“Does she know?” Sharptongue asked. Ghostcaller shook his head.

“I figured out she felt the same way not long before I left.” He rested his head down in the sand, voice growing softer. “I was going through a rough patch at the time, so I didn't want to say anything to her about it. I didn't think I could handle a romantic relationship with all the emotional baggage at the time. I'm forever grateful to her and sometimes I do wonder what life would be like if I had told her, if I had stayed, but...”

“Why _did_ you leave anyway?” Sharptongue questioned. Ghostcaller instantly shut up, stiffening. He didn't say anything for a long moment, as if he was trying to think of an excuse.

“I'm sorry, but I can't tell you that right now,” he said, voice going back to the normal emotionless monotone.

“You said you wanted to talk to me and get to know me better.” Sharptongue frowned. “I poured my heart and soul out to you yesterday when we talked about our parents-”

“I'm not comfortable talking about it, okay?” Ghostcaller hissed. Sharptongue was startled by the outburst, but then sighed and stopped pestering him about it.

The gong rang out, but Ghostcaller and Sharptongue didn't move.

“Thanks for helping out with Hiddenheart,” Sharptongue said after a minute or two of silence. “She needed to hear something like that. I've tried yelling at her before, but she never paid attention.”

“I just hope she doesn't start fawning over me next.” Ghostcaller scowled. “I think she has a thing for dragons who don't take her crap.” Yeah, Sharptongue wouldn't be surprised if that was the case.

“Stab her with your tail if she tries,” Sharptongue spat.

“Sharptongue, that would probably hurt her really bad.” Ghostcaller curled his tail away from Sharptongue as he said that, as if he was worried Sharptongue might try to rip it off so he could hunt Hiddenheart down and stab her himself.

“ _Good_!” Sharptongue huffed. “She deserves it!” Ghostcaller let out a soft noise that could have been considered a laugh.

“Remind me to never give you a weapon.” Ghostcaller was tapping again. Sharptongue tried to figure out what that meant without asking him, but gave up quickly.

“Why did you want to know my hatching day anyway?” Sharptongue asked. “And don't try to blow it off by saying 'oh I was just curious', because you don't hunt someone down and say 'we need to talk' just because you're curious about something like that.” Ghostcaller seemed to hesitate.

“I heard a rumor about a pair of NightWings being found dead near the Scorpion Den around that time,” Ghostcaller said. “And you mentioned your parents died the day you hatched, so...It doesn't matter. It was the twelfth anyway, so it probably wasn't them.” Sharptongue's eyes widened. No, that was definitely his parents. He had lied about his hatching day to Ghostcaller because he didn't want him to know the exact date for a very good reason.

Sharptongue had hatched the night of an eclipse, and NightWings who hatch during an eclipse didn't get powers. He, Lightweaver and Starfall agreed to say that he had hatched the night after instead to keep his lack of powers a secret. Ghostcaller was probably fully aware of that fact, which was probably why he had asked in the first place.

“I think a pair of dead NightWings does matter,” Sharptongue said. “Maybe they _were_ my parents and news didn't get back until the next day, so Starfall just thought they died on my hatching day when they really died the day before. Did you ever think of that?”

“Come on, I didn't mean anything by it,” Ghostcaller said. “I just...I heard rumors that they were murdered, rumors claiming a Dragonbite Viper had gotten them, rumors claiming they died from dehydration. I didn't bother finding out which of those rumors was true, since I didn't know them, but I never bothered to learn what they looked like or their names. Do you know how your parents died?”

Sharptongue let out a sigh, digging his talons into the sand. “No. Starfall never told me. I don't think she knew either.”

“What do you have against mind readers?” Ghostcaller asked suddenly. “You didn't seem very pleased to see my sister or to find out that I'm a mind reader.”

“That's none of your business,” Sharptongue snapped. “I just don't like other dragons digging around in my mind is all and I'm fairly certain you two were doing just that.”

“We were worried about you,” Ghoscaller defended himself. “You just got sad all of a sudden and we wanted to know what was making you so upset. I wanted to see if maybe I could help you out or something.”

“I don't need your pity!” Sharptongue snapped as he leaped to his talons. “I can take care of myself! And stay out of my mind!” He turned and headed out of the cave. Ghostcaller didn't even bother trying to yell for him to come back.

 

Sharptongue avoided Ghostcaller for the rest of the free time and headed into his history class, still fuming from the argument. Princess Cuttlefish was there, but he avoided her. She was busy chatting with another SeaWing anyway. He kept to himself through the class, only speaking up to introduce himself.

Math went by the same way. Ghostcaller spent the hour with Pyrope, but would occasionally look over to Sharptongue like he wanted to say something to him. Sharptongue did his best to ignore the two. He started to question whether or not he should have snapped at Ghostcaller. The SandWing did genuinely seem to care a little, at least, judging from how he completely rejected Hiddenheart.

His anger was gone by the time they got to their music class. Bull and Oddeyes were already there, talking with one another about how things had changed since Oddeyes moved away.

“Hey, Sharptongue,” Oddeyes greeted. “I see you and Ghostcaller are getting along.”

“Go shove your head up a deer's-”

“Hi!” Hurricane greeted as he bounded into the room with Ghostcaller. Ghostcaller nodded a greeting to them, but then immediately turned his attention to the drums in the back of the room. He nudged Hurricane and then headed over. Hurricane, grinning, walked to the piano.

“Okay, class!” Their teacher, a NightWing, spoke up. “Music class won't have any strict rules or schedule. As a creative class, you are here to relax and have fun.”

Right after he finished saying that, Hurricane and Ghostcaller started to play. The two must have played the song back in the rainforest often, because they played in perfect sync, reading off each others' cues perfectly. Ghostcaller seemed genuinely relaxed for once, no longer alert or on edge with a coiled tail twitching towards some unseen enemy that didn't exist.

The two other MudWings started to dance along. Bull was smiling, but he stayed in the corner, keeping out of the way. Even the teacher was dancing, tapping his talons to the beat. Sharptongue remained where he was, resisting the urge to join them.

Pyrope and Tarantula poked their heads into the room, curious. Striking was with them for a moment, but then vanished. Not long after, word spread about the mini concert going on and all the dragons with a free hour began to crowd around the thankfully large cave to listen. Sharptongue spotted Osprey beside his brother through the dancing crowd, smiling ever so slightly.

Ghostcaller looked over at Sharptongue, trying to meet his gaze, but Sharptongue refused to look him in the eye, choosing instead to focus on Hurricane. He wasn't surprised about Ghostcaller knowing how to play an instrument. From what he heard, SandWings were famous for their music. He was, however, surprised that Hurricane even knew what a piano was or that he was so good at playing it.

His cavemates just seemed to be getting interesting every day.

 


	5. ~Calm Before the Storm~

“Hello again, class,” Oarfish greeted as the final dragonet entered the cave. “Now, today we will start with a more detailed summary of the class. The first part of this year will start with us going over each tribe and how they work, including the kingdoms they live in. If we're lucky, we'll even get to visit their kingdoms at some point in the year as a field trip. Each tribe will get a single day and if you are willing to do so, you may take the stage and talk about them yourselves.”

Excited murmurs spread through the group at the news, but Sharptongue noticed that Rose was the odd one out, head tipped to the side in thought. She then raised a talon and Oarfish raised his wings for silence, nodding to her.

“What if we are a hybrid or didn't grow up in our kingdoms?” she asked. “What of the NightWings, whose tribe has been split in two?”

Oarfish let out a soft hum of thought. “Well, if you don't live within your kingdom, I will handle that part, but you may still explain how your tribe works. As for the hybrid issue...Well, you may explain how one or both of your tribes, but only if you know enough about the purebreds. We will have a section to speak about hybrids at some point, but only after speaking about the purebreds as they are more common.”

“For today, however, we will talk about SkyWings. As with all dragons, the SkyWings will take on the attitude of the queen, however they are more influenced by their queen than any other tribe. Their current queen is Queen Scree and with her on the throne SkyWings are quite the show-offs and fairly stubborn. Of course, no dragon is exactly the same and I'm sure there are SkyWings who are exactly the opposite of that. SkyWings have la- yes, Hurricane?”

Sharptongue looked over at the RainWing, who was sitting up on his haunches, frantically waving a talon in the air with a big grin on his face, scales having changed to a bright yellow.

“Can I talk about SkyWings?” he asked. “I'm half SkyWing myself and my older cousin is, too. I know a lot about them from my aunts and my dad.”

“Well, alright. Come on up.” Oarfish stepped aside and Hurricane bounded to the front of the room.

“Okay, so SkyWings got their names from their _huge_ wings and because they live way up in the Claws of the Clouds Mountains, up in the peaks. Their wings are shaped in a way that lets them fly really fast, which can help them get from mountain to mountain easily.” As he spoke, Hurricane opened a wing. Stealing a glance at Striking for a moment, Sharptongue realized that Hurricane's wings were in fact larger than a normal RainWing's. Of course, they weren't quite as big as a purebred SkyWing's, but they were pretty close.

“All of the major rivers run through the Sky Kingdom too. Only the beginning of the Winding Tail River is considered a part of the territory, though. The Great Five-Tail River, however, was probably the most contested piece of land in the whole kingdom. The SandWings and SkyWings used to war over it constantly, but after the War of the SandWing Succession, Possibility was created and they haven't fought over it since.

“I can't tell you exactly how SkyWings live since I haven't actually visited the territory for myself, but I do know that usually only mothers raise their dragonets and they normally only have one egg at a time. I think the wealthier SkyWings live way up at the peaks of the mountains and closer to the palace while the poorer dragons live lower down the mountains and farther away from the palace.”

“That would be correct,” Oarfish interrupted. “Adding onto what you said earlier, yes, SkyWings normally only have one egg at a time and mothers do normally raise their dragonets alone.”

“SkyWings are pretty colorful, too,” Hurricane continued. “They can be red, gold or orange and any color in between.” Hurricane changed his scales to show off all the colors. “They're one of the three tribes that can be three or more colors. They're pretty warm to the touch, warmer than SandWings even, and are one of the four fire breathers. That's all I know about them, though.”

“Thank you, Hurricane,” Oarfish said. “No need to worry, I'll explain the parts you missed. All of what Hurricane said is true, but it should be mentioned that gold is a fairly uncommon color for SkyWings and normally only have them if they have some sort of hybrid ancestry, otherwise they are a more yellow-orange color rather than pure yellow.” Hurricane hurried over to sit back down beside Sharptongue, smiling as Oarfish conntinued,

“SkyWings can sometimes have eggs that have twins inside them. When these twins hatch they will be Firescales dragons. One twin will have too much fire and burn anything that touches it while the other will have too little fire. Very little is known about these dragons as they are normally killed immediately. The twin with too much fire because they are highly dangerous and the twin with too little fire is more of a mercy kill as they probably are too weak and would not live long anyway. No Animus SkyWings exist for this same exact reason and any SkyWings with a severe mutation are normally killed young as well.”

“That's horrible!” Sludge gasped. “Hasn't anyone chosen to stop this?”

“No, I'm afraid not,” Oarfish answered. “It's been a tradition for SkyWings to do these things since before Darkstalker was born and it will likely continue for a long while.” Sharptongue noticed Hurricane's wings drooping and small purple dapples appearing on his scales. His smile was gone as well.

“SkyWings are, as Hurricane said, one of the dragons who can breathe fire,” Oarfish continued. “They are the best at it, able to breathe fire no matter how cold they are and can stand cold temperatures much longer than other tribes outside of the IceWing tribe. Their fire is the hottest of all tribes and when they are angry smoke will rise from their horns, mouth and nostrils. Sometimes they will snort out flames when particularly furious.

“SkyWings are the best fliers out there and are one of the smallest of the dragon tribes. Despite their small size, however, they are very fast and strong, the fastest and second strongest of all the tribes. They learn to fly very young, before any other tribe. They can fly as early as six months, as opposed to the average eight or nine for other tribes.

“SkyWings are pretty famous for their competitions as well. They have a fighting spirit and are known to have wrestling matches and air shows all the time. They also enjoy orchestra as well, and are known to make the best instruments.

“When a SkyWing passes away, their body will be wrapped in a white cloth and set in a high place for a weak so that their spirit can fly free and be reincarnated as another SkyWing. After the week has passed, the body will be burned and the ashes kept in an egg-shaped urn by their closest relative until their relative meets a dragon who they believe is the SkyWing reborn. Then they will dump the ashes from the sky and let the wind carry them away.”

“That does it for SkyWings. If you have any questions, feel free to ask. Now, before you do that, I do have an announcement to make. At the end of this school year, you will be required to choose one tribe to do a project on and it cannot be your tribe-or one of yours for the hybrids-and, let's see, there's six of you, so you cannot choose the same tribe as someone else. I recommend waiting until we get to hybrids before choosing the tribe you want so that you know about all of the tribes.”

“Why do we have to a project if you're already telling us everything we need to know?” Striking questioned.

“Well, I haven't told you _everything_ ,” Oarfish replied. “There are still many things I have left out such as courtship rituals, favorite prey, hunting techniques...The project doesn't have to be huge or glamorous, just something that interests you about the tribe. Perhaps you could look into the history as well, find a certain event to write about. You can start this project any time you like, but again, you should probably wait until we've gone through all the tribes.”

“Can the project be about a well known event such as the War of SandWing Succession?” Horse asked.

“Only if it's a certain part of that event that is not well known,” Oarfish said. “Otherwise choose something else, especially since you'll be going over the war in its entirety in history class.”

“What if we don't know anything about one of our tribes?” Rose spoke up. “I, admittedly, know very little about NightWings due to growing up in the Kingdom of Sand and Sanctuary.”

“I have no way to know if that's completely true or not.” Oarfish turned to her. “So to be on the safe side, you cannot do your project on NightWings. You can, however, research them in your own time if you'd like. In fact, I encourage it. Now, that does it for today's class. Feel free to spend the rest of your day as you wish.”

Sharptongue stuffed the scroll he'd been taking notes on in his bag and slung the bag over his shoulder, following Hurricane and Rose out of the cave.

“Well, that sure was...something,” Hurricane said as they headed down the hall. His scales were still a mix of purple, green, blue-gray and gray. There were a few speckles of orange throughout as well, splattered across the swirling patterns like freckles. “I had no idea SkyWings could be so horrible.”

“You heard why they do it,” Sharptongue said. “It's because they're really dangerous. If a Firescales dragon became evil when they grew up, practically nothing could stop them aside from an Animus. Plus, the weak and horribly mutated ones are killed out of mercy, not cruelty.”

“But what if they lived?” Hurricane questioned, a horrified look passing over his face. “I bet the dragonets with too little fire could live if they were given a little help.”

“Hurricane, from the sounds of it the dragonets with too little fire are like the runts of a mammal's litter,” Rose said with a gentle tone. “Runts are often abandoned or eaten because they are just too weak to live. It's best for the mother to kill them immediately before she gets too attached and it saves the dragonet the suffering of a short yet painful life.”

“I can't believe you two!” Hurricane hissed, his ruff flaring open as bright streaks of red slashed through the colder tones of greens and blues. “They're dragonets, not animals! Young, innocent dragonets and they have no proof that they will be evil or took weak to survive! There's no way to know if they'll die until it happens!” He turned and stormed away before they could say anything else. Rose sighed and shook her head.

“He'll calm down and be back to normal soon,” she said. “At least, if what Ghostcaller said about him bouncing back is true.”

“Speaking of your brother,” Sharptongue said. “He was bugging me yesterday about some really personal information and then dodged my question about why he left the Rainforest Kingdom.”

“Did he now?” Rose asked in a way that made Sharptongue start to wonder if she knew anything about the whole “bonding” mess. “Well, he normally doesn't like to talk about why he left the rainforest, so I can understand why he would dodge that question. It's a very personal reason and not one I will be answering for him. It's his decision, not mine.”

“Funny, that's not what you said when you told me his powers weren't perfect,” Sharptongue pointed out.

“That isn't so much of a secret as it is something he just doesn't tell dragons unless they ask him about it,” Rose said with a smile. “He would probably give you a more in depth explanation if you asked. Then again, that would probably end in you giving away your little secret.”

“Not so loud!” Sharptongue hissed, spikes raising in alarm. “I don't need everyone in the school hearing you!”

“Oh, please, everyone has secrets,” Rose huffed. “Still, I think you should tell him something that would let him know you trust him.”

“That's the problem, I don't know if I trust him,” Sharptongue sighed, forcing his spikes to relax. “He's always speaks in this monotone and almost emotionless voice and it's hard to tell what he's thinking. Plus he's got all those scars and I really don't think he got those from some unfortunate accident and he's always alert and acts like something's out to get him. I want to trust him, but he's just so suspicious. Before she left, my mother told me to keep an eye out for dragons like that.”

“Trust me, Sharptongue, if my brother was going to hurt you he would have done it a long time ago,” Rose said, giving him a pat on the back. “I can't explain his actions, that goes along with why he left the Rainforest, but he is one of the most trustworthy dragons I know. Don't tell him I said that, alright? He'll never let me live it down.”

Sharptongue nodded. “Thanks,” he said. “I mean, I did tell him about my parents. They died the day I-the day after I hatched and he said a pair of NightWing bodies were found close to the Scorpion Den around that time.”

“Ah, yes, the night of the eclipse.” Rose smiled as he tried to shush her. “Don't worry, Sharptongue, I won't tell anyone. I'm very sorry to say I don't know much about what happened to them, either.”

“It's fine,” Sharptongue said. “It doesn't sound like anyone knew, according to Ghostcaller.”

“The rumors were all very contradictory to one another,” Rose agreed. “Some were admittedly more believable than others. I heard someone claim a queen had them killed. Can you believe it? A queen wanting a pair of traveling artists killed? As far as I know, all the queens adored your parents' work.” Sharptongue smiled a little at the thought of his parents' artwork hanging in the palace of one of the queens.

“Starfall said she didn't think my parents had any enemies,” he said as they made it to his cave. “There were definitely dragons who didn't like them, but not quite enough to murder them, I don't think.”

“Well, whatever happened, hopefully they get justice one day.” Rose turned away and started to head off in the direction of the library. “Sharptogue, even if you two do not get along and never become real friends, please at least talk to my brother about your powers and do it soon. It'll make things easier on the both of you.”

Sharptongue watched her walk away, thinking over her words for a moment. Rose had said she could only see the brightest paths for the future, or something like that. Was this the brightest path? Did Sharptongue have to talk to Ghostcaller about his secret so soon? If it was, why didn't she just tell him outright?

He headed back to the cave and paused when he saw Ghostcaller relaxing on one of the couches, immediately having second thoughts about talking to him. Maybe he hadn't noticed him and Sharptongue could sneak off.

“Sup?” Ghostcaller greeted. Well, there went that plan. Sharptongue remained silent, unsure of what to say. He was over the argument they had yesterday and had spent a good portion of the morning internally screaming at himself for being so rude and stupid about it, but he had no way of knowing if Ghostcaller was over it yet.

“Hi,” he finally said. “So I was wondering...never mind, forget I said anything, it's stupid.”

“What? Dude, no, tell me.” Ghostcaller sat up. “Look, I know we didn't exactly get off on the right talon yesterday and I'm really sorry if I was being nosy, but I do want to know you better. I mean, if we're going to be stuck together in a cave for like, a year, then we ought to be friends, right?”

“Yeah, but it's kind of a really nosy question anyway,” Sharptongue said.

“Ask me anyway,” Ghostcaller replied. “As long as it's not about me leaving the rainforest. I'll get to be nosy back.” Sharptongue let out a long sigh. Of course that would be his reason to listen.

“Rose said your powers aren't perfect after class today,” he said quickly. “What did she mean by that?” Ghostcaller was silent. For a second, Sharptongue was worried they would end up in an argument or Ghostcaller might attack him. The SandWing was still very unpredictable and unnerving.

“She said she didn't tell you.” Ghostcaller's tail coiled up for a moment. “Well, that's a conversation I'll be having with her later.”

“Sorry.” Sharptongue frowned. “If it's a secret, you don't have to tell me.” Ghostcaller shook his head.

“Nah, it's cool,” he said. “I can read minds, sort of, but I can't hear a dragon's exact thoughts.”

“What do you mean?” Sharptongue asked. Ghostcaller moved over and patted the space next to him. Sharptongue walked over and sat down beside him, warily eyeing the SandWing's tail, just in case.

“Well, it's...kind of hard to explain,” Ghostcaller answered. “I don't hear exact words or anything, but instead I hear music that represents their thoughts. It's kind of tied in to their emotions instead of their thoughts, so I wouldn't exactly call it mind reading as much as it's just emotion reading.”

“How does that work?” Sharptongue questioned, trying to wrap his mind around this strange, new information.

“Again, kind of hard to explain if you don't hear it.” Ghostcaller tapped his claws again for a moment as he tried to figure out how to word his explanation. “Okay, so a happy dragon will have this cheery, upbeat song playing that kind of makes you want to get up and dance around. My sisters and brother usually start thinking happy thoughts around me since some dragons tend to have not so happy music playing and it's just kind of something to keep me grounded and focused on.

“On the other talon, a dragon who's angry will have loud, angry music that makes you want to get up and rip someone's face off or stab them or something like that. Normally I can ignore it, you know? Traditional mind blocking techniques work with this sort of thing, but you kind of have a really loud mind.”

“I'm not at all sorry for that,” Sharptongue said as he thought as many loud and happy things as he could. “Suffer with my music or suffer in silence.” Ghostcaller tried to remain calm and still, but Sharptongue noticed his tail subconsciously tapping a beat which he could only assume was matching the music in his mind. The edges of his mouth were twitching as he fought back a smile.

“Well, it's a lot better than when you're afraid, I'll say that,” Ghostcaller said.

“What does fear sound like?” Sharptongue asked.

“It's probably the worst one.” Ghostcaller looked away with a scowl. “The music starts off of soft and slow and it's kind of hard to hear it, but your body reacts in a way that makes you think you're in danger, that something's lurking in the dark and stalking you, getting ready to pounce. Every muscle and instinct inside of you is screaming at you to run. As the dragon gets closer to panic the music gets faster and louder, deafening almost, and you think that something's charging at you, trying to chase you. It takes a lot of effort not to run, to stay there. Even if you keep telling yourself 'I'm fine, it's all in my head, it's not real', you still have a really hard time keeping still.”

“I'm so sorry,” Sharptongue said after a moment of stunned silence. “I didn't know...I didn't realize music could...”

“Effect someone in such a way?” Ghostcaller finished. “A lot of dragons don't. Most music out there is to make a dragon happy and dance and we're classically conditioned into feeling happy or to dance when we hear it. Most dragons don't think music can effect someone in a negative way, but it can and it does. It's really cool, actually. I've taught myself self-control so I don't start dancing or run away, but I almost forgot all my training the first day.”

“What?” Sharptongue frowned. He figured it was probably because he was so nervous the first day and the other dragons were most likely feeling the same way. Did nervousness sound like fear? He hoped not. That must have been horrible for Ghostcaller.

“You,” Ghostcaller answered. “You claim that your parents' death doesn't hurt, but three moons, Sharptongue, I just about started sobbing when that symphony of grief and heartache started playing.” Oh. Whoops. Sharptongue had only faked those sad thoughts so he would have a proper excuse as to why he left the Prey Center early. He hadn't thought it would effect the other mind readers like that. Then again, Ghostcaller wasn't exactly a normal mind reader.

“It really doesn't,” he insisted. “I just wish I could have known them.”

“Except it does,” Ghostcaller argued. “Yeah, you were sad when you left the Prey Center, but it was even worse when you started talking about them. Sharptongue, it does hurt you, a lot more than you're willing to admit or even know.” He started to reach out with a wing, but then quickly pulled it back. Sharptongue stared down at the cave floor.

He had always told himself his parents' death didn't hurt, not in the slightest. Why should he care for them? He never knew them. He wish he did, though. He really wished they were around. He tried to tell himself they wouldn't be, as traveling artists, but then his thoughts would immediately hop over to _What if they brought me with them?_ and then he would start to wonder what it would be like to travel with them, to explore the continent and learn about the tribes up close and personally. What his life would be like if they had lived.

He was stuck in a world watching other dragonets grow up with at least one of their parents, watching as their parents taught them how to fly, catching them when they fell and celebrating as loud as a thousand cicadas when their dragonets hovered for just a second. He watched them teaching their dragonets how to read or write, how to draw or how to dance. How to play instruments and sing. He watched them give their dragonets their first treasure and then later watched as that dragonet grew up, always keeping that first treasure no matter what.

Would his parents have accepted their powerless dragonet? Would they have been proud of him? Would they have taught him to fly like that? Would they give him gifts or teach him how to make art as beautiful as theirs?

There was no way they could have known he was going to hatch that early, right? Sure, they had seen his name in a vision, but NightWing visions often didn't come when called. They just happened. If they knew, would they still have left?

Would they have loved him?

Sharptongue quickly tried to shove those thoughts to the back of his mind where they belonged. Starfall was his mother. She always had been and he loved her dearly and he knew he was like a son to her, she told him that all the time. It felt completely and totally wrong for him to wish that he was raised by someone else, even if that someone else just so happened to be his real parents.

 _I won't cry_ , he thought. _Not now_. _Not ever. Especially not in front of my cavemate._ Said cavemate suddenly grabbed him and pulled him into a hug, wings wrapping around him in a surprising display of affection. Sharptongue stayed there, startled, before wriggling away from him.

“I'm fine.” He couldn't look the SandWing in the eye, knowing fully well that Ghostcaller could hear the music and most definitely knew he wasn't fine. Ghostcaller frowned at him, but didn't argue.

“Sorry,” he said. “I went to far with that, didn't I?”

“A little,” Sharptongue answered. “Don't worry about it. Do all dragons have the same music for the same emotions or does it differ?” Ghostcaller relaxed as Sharptongue tried to think of more calmer and happier thoughts, like his last hatching day with Lightweaver and Starfall.

“No,” he answered. “All the tribes have different music based around certain instruments. SandWings' thoughts, for example, focus around percussion instruments like drums. SkyWings' have wind instruments, not so surprisingly. RainWings' have music based around pianos and xylophones, SeaWings' around string instruments and I don't know how to describe IceWings', but it's hauntingly beautiful. MudWings' are based around brass instruments.”

“What about NightWings?” Sharptongue asked.

“You have an entire orchestra in there.” Ghostcaller answered. “I don't know if it's because NightWings are so involved with the other tribes or what, but I'm kind of biased towards NightWing minds because of it. All of the other tribes' music is fine on their own, but there's something more moving about hearing all of the instruments playing in perfect harmony, you know?” Sharptongue nodded in understanding. He felt a lot better now that he knew Ghostcaller couldn't really read his mind like a normal NightWing. Although, now he also felt extremely stupid and embarrassed about being so scared and nervous all the time around him.

“Sorry for being kind of nosy about it,” he said. Ghostcaller shrugged.

“It's fine,” he answered. He then paused. “Wait, hold on a second. You should already know all this. You should be able to hear it, too”

Star vomit.

Well, it was the big moment. It was, honestly, nothing like Sharptongue thought it would go. He thought that they would be closer at the big reveal, that it would be a dramatic scene full of tension and edge of the seat action and very moving and emotional for the both of them. He thought it might be deep within the heart of the mountain or far away in a secluded area, probably by a lake or field. Maybe it would have even been considered romantic or something cliche like that.

He didn't expect it to be in his cave, telling the cavemate he still didn't know all that well so early in the year, in a place where any dragon who just happened to be passing by could hear.

“I...can't...” he said softly.

“What?” Ghostcaller asked. “I can't hear you, buddy, speak up.”

“I can't...” Sharptongue repeated, only slightly louder.

“Sharp-”

“I can't read your mind, okay!?” Sharptongue leaped off the couch. “I can't read _anyone's_ mind! I hatched the night of the eclipse so I didn't get any powers! I lied to you because I didn't want you to know the truth! Happy!?” He glared at Ghostcaller, the spikes on his back raised.

“I kind of already knew,” Ghostcaller admitted, avoiding his gaze.

“What?” Sharptongue took a step back. “But you said-”

“I know I can't really read your mind, but I did a test,” Ghostcaller continued. “I already had my suspicions when we first met. I couldn't feel you poking around in my mind at all and normally mind readers echo the songs of other dragons, but even after I blocked everyone out and listened to just your mind it was only your music and no one else's. And then when I told you I was a mind reader, before I moved my glasses so you could see the scales, I thought as loud as I could 'I'm a mind reader', but you didn't even react until you saw the scales.”

“Why didn't you just tell me!?” Sharptongue hissed.

“I didn't want to sound like I was trying to hold it over you or blackmail you like 'hey I know your secret you gotta do everything I say now'.” Ghostcaller's tail curled up in a tight spiral. “That's kind of really rude and not okay? I wanted you to tell me when you were ready.”

“Then why bring it up now!?” Sharptongue was very close to hitting Ghostcaller. “If you wanted me to tell you when you're ready then why give me no choice!?”

“Because you would panic later,” Gostcaller said bluntly. Sharptongue paused as he processed that and Ghostcaller's next words, “You probably didn't realize it right then and might not have until later, but at some point it was going to hit you that 'hey, he thinks I'm a mind reader and so I should already know all this because I should be able to hear the music in his mind and, oh no, I just blew my cover, he's going to know'. I didn't want you to give yourself a panic attack over it. I know we don't exactly get along, but I'm not the kind of dragon who enjoys giving someone a panic attack. They're horrible.” Sharptongue sighed, his anger melting away. He climbed back onto the couch, laying down this time with his head resting on the arm.

“Thanks, I guess?” he said. “So...now what? Going to laugh? Tell me that NightWings from the rainforest don't have powers, that it's not a big deal and I'm freaking out over nothing?”

“I'm not going to laugh at you, Sharptongue.” Ghostcaller tipped his head to the side. “We both kind of don't have perfect NightWing powers.”

“Yeah, but you're not a-” Sharptongue stopped himself. Starfall had always said he had next to no filter between his mind and mouth, but he never really paid much attention to her when she tried to scold him about it. He was starting to wish he had.

“Purebred.” Ghostcaller was back to looking emotionless. “I know. Wish I was. Would've made my life real easier, but I'm not. The rainforest NightWing thing doesn't do much for you anyway. Those are rainforest NightWings, not Night Kingdom NightWings. Same tribe, technically, but different in a lot of ways. Trust me, I lived with them for two years, I know. Some of them even call themselves SunWings now. Besides, I think you do have powers.”

“What?” Okay, now Sharptongue was convinced Ghostcaller was messing with him. “There is no way I could have powers, Ghostcaller. I hatched the night of an eclipse.”

“Except there was also another full moon that night,” Ghostcaller pointed out. “I can still hear your music and Jewelsnatcher could feel your emotions, but she said even before you set up a barrier she couldn't read your exact thoughts. I don't know if it was the eclipse itself or the mixture of the eclipse and a full moon, but whatever happened, it made you _immune to mind readers_. This is huge! You're the first NightWing in Pyrrhia's history with this kind of power, probably! If other NightWings had this power, they sure weren't aware of it, considering it's never been documented.”

“I...have a power?” Sharptongue echoed slowly. His entire life went and changed before his eyes; no more worrying about dragons knowing his secrets, no more worrying about dragons laughing at him or taunting him, no more worrying about other dragons digging around in his mind. He said most of what he thought anyway and he didn't really make much of an effort to hide his emotions.

“Well, it's not a traditional NightWing power, but three moons it's a power of some sort,” Ghostcaller continued rambling on. “There's also the question of whether or not it works both ways and it's stopping you from reading minds or if you just can't read minds at all.”

“Ghostcaller.” Sharptongue watched Ghostcaller's claws as they started to tap against the couch. Ghostcaller rambled on, completely unaware that Sharptongue was trying to talk to him.

“What happens if you touch skyfire? Would you be able to read minds then and would others be able to read yours? Would skyfire effect you at all?”

“Ghostcaller!” Sharptongue repeated, trying to get his attention. The SandWing didn't even pause.

“What would it be like if you were a seer instead of a mind reader? Would you only see events from the past? Or events that could never happen?”

“GHOSTCALLER!” Sharptongue shouted. Ghostcaller finally stopped and turned to him. “I've been calling you for the past five minutes, you rotten, mutated tomato! Would you calm down about this, already? Yeah, it's a big deal, but I still don't want other dragons knowing about this, okay? I don't want them bugging me about it!”

“Oh, yeah, sure.” Ghostcaller seemed to relax, but his claws were still tapping. “So, now that we kind of had a feelings jam or whatever, tell me what's in the bag.”

“Why?” Sharptongue held his bag close.

“I'm a curious dragonet and that bag is like the song of a siren calling me to her waiting maw to eat me. Let me see.” Ghostcaller tried to reach for it, but Sharptongue leaned back, holding it just out of his reach and pressing a back talon on his chest to hold him back.

“It's just my notes,” he answered. “What in moon's name is a siren?”

“There's something else in there,” Ghsotcaller said. “I want to know what. And I'll explain the siren thing in a minute.”

“Fine, get off!” Sharptongue shoved him away and grumbled, digging through his bag until he found what Ghostcaller wanted to see so badly; a book.

Books were still fairly new in Pyrrhia and were very difficult to obtain, but they were becoming more and more popular. Scrolls were still used, but many believed that eventually they wouldn't be needed anymore and books would take over. Books were certainly easier to organize and read from in Sharptongue's opinion, since scrolls had a bad tendency to try and roll back up on a dragon while being read unless something held it down. Sometimes the pages of a book would try to turn themselves, but they were much easier to deal with than a long scroll and it was easier for a dragon to find their place if they got interrupted or distracted.

Sharptongue only had a couple books himself, but the one he was currently reading was one he'd read many times before. Still, he enjoyed it anyway and it was one of his favorites.

“Oh, nice.” Ghostcaller was grinning as he stared at the book. “What book is it?”

“ _The Problem With Our Wings_ ,” Sharptongue answered. “It's a tragic tale of a young NightWing whose family has been cursed by an animus to die young of illness and her journey to find a way to break the curse, falling in love with another NightWing along the way. I won't spoil the ending, in case you ever read it yourself.”

“Really?” Ghostcaller sounded like he was trying not to laugh. “I never took you to be the kind of dragon to enjoy tragic love stories.”

“I don't just enjoy _tragic_ love stories,” Sharptongue huffed. “I prefer romantic stories with more humor, but I can enjoy a bit of heartbreak every now and then.”

“Romcoms,” Ghostcaller said. “You like romcoms. You are, by far, one of the most interesting dragons I have ever met.”

“Shut up!” Sharptongue snapped. “You wouldn't know a piece of good literature if it knocked you out of the sky!”

“Then let me read your book so I can.” Sharptonge almost said 'no', but then remembered what Rose had said about trusting him and he guessed they were kind of friends now, maybe? He still wasn't exactly sure what to think of Ghostcaller just yet, despite the two sharing so much about how imperfect their powers were, but he really did seem to be trying. He carefully handed the book over.

“ _Fine_ ,” he said. “But only if you read it in here and _be careful_ with it.” Ghostcaller gave him a smile.

“Wow, didn't think you would say yes,” he said. He handed it back to him. “Keep it in your bag for now. I'll start reading it on our free day when I have some more time.”

“Please, you have plenty of time to start today, you procrastinator.” Sharptongue rolled his eyes as he put the book away. “We had one hour in class and we don't even have any extra work. It was literally just a lecture.”

“I know, but history is so boring I don't think I have any energy to read right now.” Ghostcaller dramatically fell back on the couch. “Oh, woe is me. Better put me out of my misery. Bury me six feet underground with the bones of the ancestors I've never met but am, for some reason, supposed to care about and respect even though they were probably really bigoted and judgmental like a lot of old folks. 'Back in my day, dragonets like you were disrespectful but I don't think about that because I was one of those dragonets and it makes me look better if I act like I wasn't.'-”

“Has anyone ever told you that you talk too much?” Sharptongue interrupted. “Because you really do. I'm very close to shoving a scroll down your throat and leaving you to choke on it.”

“Mmm, yes, feed me some of that delicious scroll.” Ghostcaller was grinning again. “I'm hungry for knowledge.” Sharptongue gave him a swift kick and Ghostcaller let out a mock cry of pain.

“I really hate you right now,” Sharptongue said.

“I love you too, shorty.” Sharptonge grumbled and was planning on kicking him right off the couch, but now that he was thinking about powers and NightWings, his mind wandered back to the other NightWing hybrid, Jade, and what she had said the day before.

“Ghostcaller, can Jade see the future?” he asked. “Yesterday she said something really weird about you telling me about some gift to Hurricane, but you haven't said anything about it.”

“Oh, that?” Ghostcaller stopped for a moment to think. “Yeah, I think she can? I mean, she insists she can't, but then a lot of the time she talks about things that haven't happened yet. It's weird. By the way, I think she has a dream visitor, too, because she's appeared in my dreams a couple times.”

“That's weird,” Sharptongue said. “She's weird. You're weird. Your entire group of friends is weird.” Ghostcaller let out another laugh.

“Yeah, well, like you're one to talk Mr. I-have-a-rare-and-unknown-power-I-didn't-even-know-about,” he shot back. “As for the gift...well, after Hurricane's rabbit died, Rose asked Jungle to bring it back so she could make her plush version as close to the actual thing as possible. I...kind of have a thing for collecting dead things and taxidermy, so I stuffed the actual rabbit so Hurricane could have it. Jade made him a little carving of it out of stone.” That was actually pretty thoughtful of Ghostcaller. Sharptongue was a little surprised.

“That was really nice of you,” Sharptongue said. Ghostcaller shrugged and Sharptongue could see him trying not to smile. “So, what are sirens, again?”

“SeaWings have these old stories about creatures who live in the deep ocean where they can't go because the pressure is so strong,” Ghostcaller started to explain. “According to the SeaWings in Sanctuary, SeaWings would sometimes hear noises coming deep within the ocean and they would follow them down and never be seen again. Some stories say that it's a monster who disguises itself as a beautiful SeaWing who uses her hypnotizing song to lure in other dragons. Then she would transform into her true form and swallow them whole. The SeaWings who grew up away from the ocean don't believe those stories anymore, as far as I know.”

“That sounds kind of similar to the Kelp Strangler,” Sharptongue said. Ghostcaller gave him a confused look and he continued, “Since we NightWings live so high up on cliffs and some beside the ocean, it's kind of a problem when our young dragonets get too close to the edges of the cliffs or the water. We're okay at swimming, but on bad days even adult dragons can't escape the waves. I can't tell you how many times I saw a dragonet who couldn't fly fall off the cliffs and into the waves before someone could catch them or heard of dragonets falling to their deaths after trying to fly too soon off the side of a cliff.

“Well, in an attempt to stop the dragonets from getting too curious, NightWing parents came up with this story about a Kelp Strangler. Stories vary depending on where exactly the dragons live, but the basics is that the Kelp Strangler creates the horrible waves on bad days and waits for dragons to fall in from the cliffs where it wraps its sea-weed like tentacles around them and then it drowns them. In some stories, especially of the home is close to the beach but not on a cliff, it takes the form of a delicious looking piece of prey to lure dragons close so it can grab them.

“The other version, which is more common in the cliffs, is that if a dragonet gets too close to the edge of a cliff, the Kelp Strangler will leap from the darkness and grab them, taking them away to eat them, preferably alive. If a dragonet tries to fly too soon with no one to catch them, the Kelp Strangler will open its mouth and sweep it down its throat with a single breath.”

“That is horrifying,” Ghostcaller said, frowning. “And you tell that to your dragonets to scare them? What is wrong with you?”

“You try getting a bunch of dragonets to listen to you when you tell them not to do something!” Sharptongue huffed. “Dragonets kind of have a bad habit of trying to fly too soon. In most kingdoms, this isn't a problem, but not for us NightWings. Most of us live on high cliffs, some right over the ocean, remember? If a dragonet falls and no one's able to catch them, they'll plummet right into the ocean or to the bottom of the mountains or whatever. The ocean beside the cliffs isn't exactly smooth. There's sharp rocks all over the place and even if you somehow manage to avoid impaling yourself on the rocks, the ocean is really rough in those spots and will slam you into them over and over again. Besides, after we can fly we're old enough to know that those stories aren't true.”

“You're bonding!” Hurricane gasped as he entered the room. “Can I join in?” Okay, Ghostcaller Sharptongue could kind of handle, and Hurricane kind of as well, but only alone. The two of them together? No way.

“Come on in,” Ghostcaller said. “Join the wonderful party of rainbows and friendship. We were talking about old ghost stories made up to terrify dragonets into behaving. NightWings win, in my opinion.” Hurricane smiled and hopped up onto one of the other couches.

“Oh, hey, Ghost, I left something in my hammock for you after class,” he said. “You can go get it now, if you want.”

“Sweet.” Ghostcaller headed off into the back room. Sharptongue eyed Hurricane suspiciously, who was trying to muffle his laughter.

“You bounced back quick,” he said. Hurricane shrugged, smile wavering for a moment.

“I'm not thinking about it,” he answered. “By the way, don't sleep in a hammock around Ghostcaller too long because he has a habit of flipping it over on you to get your attention. At least, that's what he used to do to me and Jade in the rainforest.” A few moments later there was a loud clanging noise and a yelp from Ghostcaller. The SandWing rushed back into the room, water dripping from his scales and a bucket hanging from his horn.

“Come here,” he said in a disturbingly calm voice to Hurricane. “I want to give you another _hug_.” Hurricane squeaked in fear and darted off the couch, disappearing out of the cave.

“You can't run from me forever, Hurricane!” Ghostcaller called as he raced after his friend, the bucket clattering to the floor.

“Hey, damage to school property is likely to get you two expelled!” Sharptongue shouted after them. He wasn't sure if the two even heard him. He shook his head and headed back to his cave to put his bag away.

“Hello, Sharptongue,” Lightweaver greeted as she headed into the cave. “I trust your second day has gone well?”

“It's been...something,” Sharptongue answered. “Ghostcaller and I had a bit of a talk. He knows I can't read minds.” Lightweaver smiled at him.

“It's wonderful to hear you trust him enough to tell him.” She looked nervous for a second. “You don't...happen to know where he is now, do you? I wish to ask him about something.” Sharptongue raised a brow.

“You just missed him,” he answered. “He's chasing Hurricane after he pranked him. Why do you want to speak to him?”

Lightweaver looked over her shoulder. “That would explain the bucket on the floor.” She let out a soft sigh, poking at the ground with a claw. “Well, I wish to ask him how one would go about befriending his sister.”

“I wish you luck with that one,” Sharptongue said, trying hard not to smile. “I think she was heading towards the library. Check there. I don't know if asking Ghostcaller for advice will go well, though. I think he'll just mess with you.”

“I can wait,” Lightweaver said quickly. “She is probably busy studying and I would not want to interrupt her.”

Sharptongue rolled his eyes. Still, he was happy to see Lightweaver was getting over Hiddenheart so quickly. He just hoped Rose was better, though Hiddenheart didn't exactly set a very high bar for friendship, so sky knows what might happen with Rose.

“Have you seen Oddeyes?” Sharptongue asked. “I haven't seen him in a while.” Lightweaver shook her head as she sat down on the bed.

“No, I think he has been busy with class,” she answered. “Or catching up with his old group of friends.”

“That wouldn't surprise me.” Sharptongue answered. “You think everything will go smoothly? I mean, the first week isn't even over and so much has already happened.”

“I'm sure it will be fine.” Lightweaver gave him a smile. “Everything should calm down in a few days.”

“I sure hope so,” Sharptongue sighed. “Come on, we're going to the library.” Lightweaver frowned at him.

“Sharptongue, Rose wouldn't want to be bothered-” She tried to argue with him, but Sharptongue wasn't going to listen.

“We're going,” he insisted. “Rose is...weird, but from what I've seen she means well and is a decent friend, at least.” Despite her trying to protest, Sharptongue managed to get Lightweaver out of the cave and towards the library. They passed several dragons on the way there, one of which being a SkyWing/IceWing who looked split down the middle. Half of her looked like a SkyWing and the other like an IceWing. The ruff of spikes on her neck were smaller than a normal IceWings' and she only had two spikes on her tail, one on either side. Sharptongue tried to avoid staring at her too long.

She was chatting with a SandWing with a topaz necklace hanging around his neck and a topaz ring on one claw. He had a couple tears in his wings and ridge and a torn ear. There were odd markings on his horns, wings and legs and he eyed the two NightWings warily as they walked by.

A few hyper three year olds bounded by them, chatting happily about going to the nearby underwater lake to check it out. Sharptongue spotted Cuttlefish among them and a silver IceWing with blue stripes. Another hybrid was with them, this one a blue SeaWing whose scales were tinted with white. His wings looked like a beach, a sandy yellow at the edges with a thick white line separating it from the blue with lacy white lines crisscrossing through. He had the SandWing ridge running down his spine.

Sludge and Snow Leopard were among them, along with a deep blue blue-violet SeaWing with a white underside. His wings were white on the bottom and the same deep blue as his scales on top. The scales running along his spine were darker as well. A white line ran along the edge of the top of his wings and his webs.

The library didn't have as many dragons in it as Sharptongue thought there were be. There were several scattered around, chatting quietly and reading. To Sharptongue's disappointment, he didn't see that many books, if any. The shelves were all filled with scrolls neatly stacked together and labeled clearly.

Sharptongue spotted Rose in the back reading a scroll and nudged Lightweaver over to her. Lightweaver frowned at him, but walked over and quietly greeted Rose. Satisfied that he had successfully gotten the two to interact again, he headed through the maze of shelves, scanning the scrolls for anything interesting to read. He heard a holler from outside and peered through one of the open windows out of curiosity.

Jungle was outside, throwing a ball made of stuffed fabric to his cousin. Jade opened her wings and leaped up into the air, giving Sharptongue a better view of them. The part of her wing that met her body was speckled with stars in no particular pattern. It was the membranes attached to the fingers of her wings that really caught his attention. He already knew about the spiraling patterns of stars, but he hadn't seen them too well when he first met her since she kept her wings mostly folded when he had seen her before.

The spiraling patterns sort of reminded him of a galaxy in a way. There was one spiral per membrane and as the spiral branched out, the stars became spaced a little farther apart. Along the edges of her wings, where it was no longer clear which stars belonged to which branch of the spiral due to being cut off by the edges of her wing, they stars looked like a halo circling around it.

Her scales were no longer the deep shade of green, but instead dark pink with starbursts of gold. A MudWing was watching them from afar with another group of MudWings, one of them a silvery-brown color. He guessed that might have been another hybrid since he had only seen normal MudWings with brown scales, but he wasn't too sure.

After watching a while longer, Sharptongue tore his eyes away and kept looking through the scrolls, searching for something about NightWing powers. Finally, he found one and pulled it out. He did a quick skim through.

_NightWing obtain their powers when they are still in the egg, normally just before hatching or as they are hatching. These powers are given to them depending on the number of full moons and how much moonlight they receive. NightWings hatched under one moon will grant them one power, while two moons give them both. NightWings hatched during three full moons is something that is very rare and this, while once thought to grant animus powers, is thought to only enhance both powers. The only NightWings who have hatched under three moons are Darkstalker and his sister, Whiteout and the Dragonet of Destiny, Starflight. Whiteout, however, is believed to have not gotten any powers and Starflight, because he hatched underground, did not receive any powers either._

_While it is extremely rare and is thought to be more common for thrice moon born dragonets, some NightWings may get mutated powers. What causes this is still unknown since it is so rare. Some are able to summon visions without waiting for them, as seen by Clearsight. The mutated powers of a mind reader allow them to search through the mind of a dragon, looking through their memories in ways most mind readers cannot and may make them immune to mind barriers._

_Due to the rarity of the conditions, NightWings are almost never hatched under an eclipse. They gain no powers from this, and it is believed that in order to obtain powers, NightWings must have pure moonlight. This could also be why NightWings who are not exposed to enough moonlight cannot gain powers. Full moons or long exposure to moonlight over a period of several nights are the only thing that allows a NightWing to obtain powers outside of animus enchantments._

_There has never been a NightWing born under two moons where one is eclipsing. It has been theorized that the eclipse will cancel the one moon out and the dragonet will only obtain one power instead of the usual two, and it is thought these powers might be a little weaker than a normal NightWing's. NightWings have stories and superstitions about dragonets hatched under an eclipse bringing bad luck to those around them, though there is very little proof of this claim. Many parents may hire an animus to enchant their egg so it does not hatch the night of an eclipse._

Sharptongue immediately put the scroll back up after reading that last part. It was not something he liked thinking about and had heard all the stories and concerned words of older NightWings when they questioned Starfall about him being hatched so early and so close to the eclipse. Some believed the eclipse cursed his parents and somehow caused their deaths and cursed his egg. He knew the stories weren't real-three moons, how could any dragon bring bad luck-but he still sometimes caught himself wondering if he was the reason whenever something bad happened.

Seeing that the scroll was useless to him, Sharptongue headed back towards the exit. He stole a glance at Lightweaver and Rose and saw them reading the scroll together, sometimes sharing snarky comments. Rose met his gaze and smiled at him. Sharptongue turned and hurried out, pretending not to notice.

Still, even if he wasn't bad luck, Sharptongue couldn't fight the sinking feeling that it was going to be a long year, and not in a good way.

 


	6. ~Prophetic Visions~

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I'd like to say thank you for all of the Kudos and comments and support in general before I get this chapter started! I'm very sorry for not updating this sooner, but I've been a little busy lately and haven't had the time. Things should be calming down now in life, however, so I should be able to update more frequently now.

“Sharptongue, get up,” Ghostcaller poked and prodded his Cavemate relentlessly until Sharptongue finally growled and snapped at his talon. Ghostcaller jumped back, tail raising in alarm before curling up in a harmless spiral.

“What do you want?” Sharptongue hissed, poking his head out of the blankets. “It's the middle of the night and I'm trying to sleep.”

“We're going to the literature cave,” Ghostcaller answered. He hopped up onto the bed. “Come on, I know those blankets are comfy and warm, but we've got to get going. Let's go. Besides, aren't NightWings nocturnal, anyway?” Sharptongue ducked his head back under the blankets and kicked Ghostcaller. He smiled when he heard the satisfying yelp and thud as his cavemate hit the floor.

“Only when we're not in a school that requires us to be diurnal,” Sharptongue hissed irritably.

“I sincerely hope I am not interrupting something.” Sharptongue raised his head when he heard Lightweaver's voice. “Can you please explain why Rose woke me up and told me to come here?” Sharptongue shot a glare to Ghostcaller, who was still sprawled out on the floor.

“I'll explain once we get out of here,” he said, rolling back onto his talons.

“Look, ST, I get you and your cavemate are buddies and I'm happy for you, really, but do we have to get up in the middle of the night like this?” Oddeyes complained from farther down, waiting in the larger room.

“You dragged my friends here?” Sharptongue pulled himself out from under the blankets and frowned at Ghostcaller, who looked very excited for some unknown reason and it was beginning to make Sharptongue feel very concerned.

“Come on,” Ghostcaller whipped around and hurried out of the cave, tail curling up in a safe spiral to avoid poking anyone by accident. Sharptongue, Oddeyes and Lightweaver all shared a confused look before following him.

The hallways were fairly dark, only a few bulbs lighted to provide a little light. Lightweaver and Sharptongue had no problems navigating through the darkness. NightWings in the Night Kingdom were mostly nocturnal and their night vision was arguably the best of all the tribes. Still, it took a while to adjust to the low light and Oddeyes, being from the Rainforest, was complaining about bumping his talons against stones and walls.

Ghostcaller led the way, his pure white scales easy to see in the darkness. Every now and then he'd look over his shoulder to make sure the others were still following him or hadn't fallen too far behind. Sharptongue was left very frustrated to see that he was still wearing those ridiculous tinted glasses, wondering how he could see anything with them on.

“It's hard to see you NightWings in the dark,” Ghostcaller said after looking back for the third time. Sharptongue rolled his eyes and was about to snap a retort, but Lightweaver brushed her wing against his and shook her head. Sharptongue let out a sigh and ground his teeth, muttering soft insults at Ghostcaller under his breath.

“Stop right there!” They were halfway to the literature cave when a voice called out from the darkness, making the small group freeze in their tracks. No one was surprised-nor happy-to see it was just Hurricane, who let out a soft laugh. “You should have seen how high you guys jumped!”

“Not cool, man,” Oddeyes complained. “I thought we were going to get expelled or something.”

“We wouldn't get expelled,” Lightweaver told him. “Just given a stern scolding and sent back to our caves.”

“That's filed under 'or something', LW.”

Sharptongue ignored the soft bickering of his friend and sister as he shot a furious glare at Hurricane, who just trotted on over completely not unnerved at all by it, that stupidly happy grin on his face. Sharptongue wasn't sure why he hated Hurricane so much, he wasn't that bad, but he did and it was a hatred that wouldn't be going away anytime soon.

“Go away!” Sharptongue hissed. “How long have you been following us for!?”

“Since you got up.” Hurricane shrugged. “I couldn't sleep so I figured I'd help a friend out. What are you sneaking around for anyway?”

“Ask Ghostcaller.” Sharptongue glared towards the SandWing next, who was already walking away.

The Literature cave was a lot darker in the middle of the night, especially with the blinds closed, hiding the light from the moons. It was difficult to see much of anything, so Sharptongue lit the two bulbs in the cave's entrance to get a better look around. It was still fairly dark, but at least they could avoid bumping their talons against any tables and scroll racks.

“Up there,” Ghostcaller whispered, pointing up at the painting Sharptongue had seen earlier while in class.

It was a red NightWing standing on the very edge of a rocky beach, up on a ledge. Waves crashed around him and he was looking to the sky with a determined expression on his face, one webbed foreleg raised off the rocks. His wings were spread wide open and Sharptongue could see the odd swirling patterns along the edges that Cuttlefish and Turquoise had. His were more faded and had a few star-like scales in the swirls that made them much more noticeable and Sharptongue was fairly certain they looked like they were painted in a way that made them look like they were glowing. He had webbing on his back and chest as well. His underside was a very pale pink, almost white and his eyes were a bright shade of amber.

“Hey, Sharptongue, do you know who that is?” Hurricane asked, pointing to the picture. “I know he's from the Rainforest because of his scales, but I've never seen or heard of a SeaWing/NightWing being there before. Then again, not many dragons talk about the ones who move away...”

“No idea,” he answered, looking back to Oddeyes and Lightweaver. They shrugged, just as lost and confused as him. Sharptongue then looked to Ghostcaller for an explanation. The hybrid was frowning, talon tapping against the floor. Sharptongue had quickly figured out it was a little quirk of his, something he only did when he was thinking hard about something or when he was nervous, a way to let out a bit of pent up energy so he could stay calm and focused.

“He looks cool!” Hurricane grinned. His scales shifted as he tried to copy the shades of red. It didn't work as well as he probably would have liked, considering how his scales couldn't change shades, but it was close enough in Sharptongue's opinion.

“Okay, we've seen it, now let's go back,” Lightweaver said, starting to head to the exit.

“Wait.” Ghostcaller turned and blew out the bulbs. The others let out soft noises of protest, especially Hurricane and Oddeyes. Lightweaver cast Ghostcaller a nervous and somewhat exasperated look. Ghostcaller headed over to Sharptongue and reached out with a talon until he felt Sharptongue's wing. He gave it a gentle tug. “Open your wing for me.”

“Why?” Sharptongue stepped to the side, tucking his wings tighter against his sides. “What are you trying to accomplish here?”

“Just do it,” Ghostcaller hissed. Still skeptical and somewhat wary, Sharptongue opened a wing.

Ghostcaller was focused on the small half circle of star-like scales along the very edges of his wings. Now that it was pitch black in the room, it was easier to see the faint glow they gave off. Ghostcaller stared at them for a moment before looking back to the painting, letting out a soft puff of fire.

The swirling patterns under hybrid's wing were nearly identical, and now that he was closer to the painting Sharptongue could see the odd pattern of star-like scales under the hybrid's wings were exactly the same as his own.

“Found your dad,” Oddeyes said, looking to Sharptongue. Sharptongue snapped his wing shut and frowned at his friend before looking back up at the painting, stunned into silence.

“Wait, you mean to tell me you don't know what your dad looks like?” Ghostcaller questioned. Sharptongue poked the ground with a talon, trying not to lose himself in his thoughts.

“Not really, no,” he answered. “Starfall never told me his name, just my mother's. Her name was Evilslayer. She never said much about my dad.”

“Do you know what these are?” Ghostcaller tapped a talon to the swirling patterns under the NightWing hybrid's wing. Sharptongue shook his head. “Those patterns are only present on a select number of SeaWings.”

“Can you stop dancing around the truth and just spit it out already?” Oddeyes questioned with a irritated hiss. “This dramatic tension isn't as cool as you think it is.”

“Sharptongue is related to the royal SeaWing family,” Ghostcaller said bluntly. “That forward enough for you?”

“Woah, woah, let's back up here.” Hurricane stepped forward, swirling patterns of orange spreading through his scales. “Sharptongue is  _royalty_ ? That means he's, like, Cuttlefish's and Turquoise's cousin, right?”

“But then why did my dad die?” Sharptongue spoke up, failing to hide a desperate tone in his voice. “If he was royalty, why was he killed?”

“Perhaps his birth was an accident and it was the queen's way of covering up that mistake,” Lightweaver suggested. “Not a good way, really. Horrible, actually.”

“I think it's because he was a threat to the throne,” Ghostcaller said, talon tapping again. “If he's a direct descendant of the queen or her sibling, his dragonets could potentially try for the throne. It's odd how all her daughters have died before their seventh hatching day, or right after it. She probably found out he had an egg, or was going to, and got rid of him in an attempt to prevent any competition.”

“But Sharptongue can't be a queen.” Hurricane's wings drooped. “He can't try for the throne.”

“You can't tell the gender of an egg before it hatches without some sort of animus object,” Oddeyes pointed out. “She didn't know Sharptongue would be male or female.”

“The Royal SeaWing hatchery has an animus spell like that,” Ghostcaller said. “Some of the SeaWings at Sanctuary told me about it.”

“It still is not a good reason,” Lightweaver hissed. “Sharptongue's parents left the Kingdom of the Sea by the time his egg was born.”

“So they died for nothing then?” Sharptongue spat. Ghostcaller shook his head, frowning at him.

“No, not really,” he answered. “I heard stories from some of the other SeaWings in Sanctuary. It's forbidden to speak of your dad, Crab, in the Kingdom of the Sea. He nearly started a war between the two kingdoms. I don't know the full story, but he was pretty infamous there. They kept pretty quiet about it, too, so I doubt any other tribes know about it aside from the NightWings.”

“My dad's a criminal.” Sharptongue sat down, digging his talons into the ground. “Great.” He had never had high hopes for his parents. He thought they were just traveling artists and he loved their artwork, but now? He couldn't help but feel a little disappointed. His parents were fugitives, trying to spark a war between two kingdoms for unknown reasons and they had paid the price for it.

Lightweaver reached out with a wing and wrapped it around Sharptongue in an attempt to comfort him. She said something about going back to their cave to sleep, but Sharptongue was just barely listening to her. Oddeyes patted him on the talon briefly, which was about as close to comfort as Sharptongue would get from him, and started to head out. Lightweaver hesitated before following him, Hurricane right behind them after casting a look of pity Sharptongue's way.

“You okay?” Ghostcaller asked softly. Sharptongue pressed his head against Ghostcaller's chest. Ghostcaller stiffened, startled, before slowly wrapping his wings around his cavemate.

“Thanks for showing this to me,” Sharptongue mumbled. “Even if he wasn't a good dragon, I'm glad to know what my dad looked like.”

“I'm sorry,” Ghostcaller murmured. “I know what it's like to have a dad who isn't quite a good dragon, so if you need to talk to me just ask, okay?” Sharptongue was about to ask him what he meant when he heard a cry from outside the cave.

“Lightweaver!” Sharptongue raced over the second he heard Oddeyes cry out. Lightweaver was on the ground, wings covering her head. Ghostcaller stopped beside him, teeth bared and tail raised, ready to fight. He forced himself to relax when there was no sign of immediate danger.

“What's going on?” Hurricane asked frantically. His scales were dull shades of gray and various splotches of green and lime green were splattered across his scales like paint. “She just collapsed! Is she okay!? Is this normal!?”

Oddeyes cast Sharptongue an exasperated look. Clearly he had been trying to explain to Hurricane what was going on, but the RainWing just wouldn't listen, too busy panicking.

“It's a vision,” Sharptongue explained quickly, hurrying over to his sister's side. “She'll be okay once it's over. She might have a migraine after it.” Oddeyes winced in sympathy and said something about getting some medicine for her just in case before walking away.

“Rose was never like this when she had a vision,” Ghostcaller said. “You sure this is normal?”

“For normal NightWings, yes,” Sharptongue answered, calming himself down. “Especially if it comes with a prophecy.” He reached out and gently rubbed Lightweaver's back with a talon.

Lightweaver began to speak, startling the rest of the dragonets into silence;

“ _From the depths comes a storm to stain the moon red_

_From the moon comes a storm of change and dread_

_The light is dimming, the light is gone_

_All is lost, all is done_

_With silver scales and a heart of hate, the past will lay its final bait_

_The trap is sprung, the storm grows stronger_

_Wings of fire, ice, venom and sea will be blind no longer_

_They shall end the war that is yet to happen_

_but only if they can first avoid their assassin_ ”

“Three moons,” Hurricane gasped. “That was a prophecy, wasn't it?”

“I hate those,” Lightweaver muttered. “I hate them so much.”

“Prophecies?” Ghostcaller questioned. “Or the visions that come with them?”

Lightweaver got to her feet, frowning and leaning against Sharptongue for support. “Both,” she answered with a sigh. “I am sorry, I can not explain what it means. The images that came with the prophecy were blurry and hard to make out.”

“The moon staining red...The eclipse!” Ghostcaller turned to Sharptongue. “Sharptongue, that prophecy, with silver scales and heart of hate, the war that is yet to happen. Your parents! It's about your parents!”

“I bet they lived!” Hurricane gasped, looking more excited than afraid. “I bet they survived and we have to stop them!”

“No!” Sharptongue's wings flew over his head. “They didn't live! They couldn't have! Multiple dragons saw their dead bodies and we don't have to fight them!”

“But isn't it weird how no one knows exactly how they died?” Hurricane asked. He yelped as Lightweaver suddenly kicked him and hissed something, wrapping her wings around Sharptongue as she shot a glare to Ghostcaller and Hurricane. Ghostcaller ducked his head, looking guilty for bringing the subject up.

“I don't want to fight them,” Sharptongue mumbled.

“Shhh, you won't have to fight them,” Lightweaver murmured. “They're gone, Sharptongue, they're dead. Starfall wouldn't have lied about that.” Hurricane shuffled awkwardly, staring down at his talons.

“I'm sorry,” he said. “I should have thought more before saying that stuff. But, hey, if the prophecy is true, we get to be heroes!”

“No,” Ghostcaller spat. Sharptongue looked up at him, startled by the bitter and furious tone. “We won't be. We're not 'wings of fire' or 'wings of ice' or 'wings of venom' or 'wings of sea'. We're not heroes and we shouldn't act like it.”

“But then why would Lightweaver have the vision if it didn't involve us?” Hurricane questioned.

“Because Sharptongue was here, maybe?” Ghostcaller argued. “The storm from the depths was probably his parents. They're dead now, but their followers might still be out there. I doubt they worked alone, that just two dragons could come so close to starting a war alone. He can stop them, but not the rest of us. We are  _not_ heroes.”

“Your annoying insistence about not being a hero is going to get you killed very heroically,” Rose said as she approached. “I'm only half joking, by the way, but still.”

“Osprey and Jewelsnatcher are heroes,” Ghostcaller said. “You and Hurricane could be one day, probably, but I'm not and I never will be. This doesn't concern us.” Sharptongue stared at him, shocked.

“Oh, trust me, it does,” Rose answered. “The futures about this are dim to my eyes, but from what I see the assassin is someone we know, possibly from Sanctuary.” Ghostcaller stiffened, tail curling up dangerously.

“Wait, what?” Hurricane's eyes widened. “You know assassins?”

“Kind of,” Ghostcaller answered. “I know of one who was near the Scorpion Den around the time of the eclipse, but he left before Sharptongue's parents got there. There might be a few more, but it's hard to tell. Dragons don't exactly go around telling everyone they're assassins.”

“This doesn't make any sense,” Sharptongue sighed. “I'm not a threat to the throne. I might be descended from the royal SeaWing family, but unless my dragonets are SeaWings, which is highly unlikely, they can't try for the throne either.”

“It's a chance that someone isn't willing to take,” Rose said. “I don't believe we have to worry about it immediately. Just keep an eye out for anything out of the ordinary.”

“Yeah, I don't see any of us dying just yet,” Oddeyes said as he walked back over to them. “Nurses weren't there. Sorry, LW.”

“It's alright.” Lightweaver shook her head. “No migraines, thankfully. At least, not physical ones. We can worry about this later. It won't happen for a while. For now we can focus on school.” Rose nodded in agreement.

“So that's it?” Sharptongue questioned. “Completely forget about the prophecy speaking of our demise and the end of the world?”

“Not completely,” Oddeyes said. “Just mostly. Until it becomes relevant.”

“We will wait for the assassin to strike,” Rose said. “Then we can get the answers we need to set this prophecy into motion.”

 

The next day was Sharptongue's free day, so there was plenty of time for Sharptongue to panic and worry about being assassinated. Luckily for him, it was Ghostcaller's free day as well so he could keep him distracted from those thoughts. And 'keep him distracted' roughly translated into 'pester him constantly'.

“Can't you leave me along for one second?” Sharptongue hissed at Ghostcaller. “I'm trying to study.”

Ghostcaller was laying on the bed with him, head and neck draped over Sharptongue's back.

“I'm bored,” he complained. Sharptongue sighed and rolled his eyes, giving him a swift kick. Ghostcaller winced and frowned, but made no noise this time. Sharptongue rolled up the scroll and put it up before shoving Ghostcaller off the bed. This time, he did yelp.

“Go be bored somewhere else, then,” Sharptongue snapped. He crouched down and then pounced, intending to land on Ghostcaller and was left surprised when Ghostcaller suddenly rolled away. The second Sharptongue's front talons touched the floor, Ghostcaller whipped around and jabbed him in the side, knocking him off balance. Sharptongue landed on his side and coughed, the breath knocked out of him. While he lay there, dazed, Ghostcaller pressed a talon to his side to hold him down.

“Nice try,” he said. “But you're kind of not a good fighter. Sick to reading.”

“Shut up!” Sharptongue kicked him in the chest and sent him skidding back. Ghostcaller was quick to recover, sidestepping out of the way when Sharptongue tried to pounce again. Sharptongue gave Ghostcaller's tail a sharp nip and the SandWing quickly tore his tail out of his reach so he couldn't do it again and curled it around his leg, pulling it out from under him.

Sharptongue scrambled to his talons and hopped back, watching Ghostcaller warily. Something had changed in the SandWing. He wasn't as relaxed as he usually was, but he was smiling, at least. It was a playful and “I'm better than you” smile which just made Sharptongue feel even more mad at him. He wasn't sure how Ghostcaller was so good at fighting, but he was going to beat him one way or another.

He started to slowly make his way around the SandWing. Ghostcaller watched him, standing completely still. Sharptongue darted forward, trying to grab at his heel. Ghostcaller leaped over him and landed gracefully on the floor, the edges of his mouth twitching as Sharptongue struggled to catch his balance.

Sharptongue growled and glared at him, the spikes on his back rising irritably. Ghostcaller was nearly impossible to catch while in a defensive state, so he figured he'd wait for him start acting offensively. Maybe he could dodge and-

In seconds Sharptongue was pinned to the floor by the SandWing. He had struck out like a snake, feinting to one side before darting to the other as Sharptongue struggled to react, jabbing the NightWing in the side and grabbing a front talon to knock him over.

“How do you keep doing that!?” Sharptongue hissed as he struggled, trying to knock him off. Ghostcaller just laughed and held him down.

“Practice,” he answered. “My dad taught me how to defend myself.” Sharptongue cursed and stopped struggling. The second he felt Ghostcaller start to take some of the pressure off his shoulders, he leaped up and knocked him down, quickly sitting on him before he could get thrown off, grabbing his front talons and holding them down.

“Looks like it wasn't enough,” Sharptongue said. Ghostcaller frowned at him before letting out a laugh.

“Okay, okay, now get off,” he said. Sharptongue let go of his talons and let him up. When he turned, however, a sharp, burning sensation in his side made him stumble and hiss in pain. Ghostcaller froze and stared at him before relaxing. “Okay, fight's over, no need to trick me again, you won.”

“I'm not faking it!” Sharptongue snapped, wincing as the burning steadily grew worse. He whimpered and lay down, raising a wing to see what had happened. A tiny, thin scratch ran along his side. It was bleeding a little.

“Camel dung,” Ghostcaller cursed and hurried over, tail curling up in a tight spiral. “I think my tail got you when you surprised me.” Sharptongue felt a jolt of fear and dug his talons into the ground.

“I'll be okay, right?” he asked. “It won't kill me?” Ghostcaller shook his head and hurried to his bag, digging through it. He let out another curse.

“Ghostcaller?” Sharptongue tried to get up and instantly regretted it.

“Keep still!” Ghostcaller hissed. “Moving is just going to make it worse. My venom can't kill, even if it were to get in your eye, but it's going to hurt a _lot_. Problem is my venom, like all SandWings, can make wounds get infected really easily. I'll be right back, okay? Stay calm.”

“Ghostcaller!” Sharptongue called out to his cavemate as he rushed out of the cave. He had no idea where he was going, but the warning about moving made him keep as still as possible. He grimaced and tried to ignore the burning pain. That warning to 'stay calm' really didn't help him at all.

Not long after Ghostcaller came rushing back in with Osprey. Osprey was carrying some sort of bowl with a green paste in it. Ghostcaller sat down beside Sharptongue, a guilty frown on his face.

“Hold still,” Osprey ordered.

“I've been holding still,” Sharptongue hissed. “What is that?”

“Cactus paste,” Osprey answered, carefully spreading a little bit of the green paste over the wound. “It'll help and keep it from getting infected.” The burning was already starting to fade away, but the wound still stung something fierce.

“Sorry,” Ghostcaller said. “I should have been more careful.”

“It's fine,” Sharptongue sighed. “It was my fault, really.”

“What were you two even doing in here?” Osprey questioned. “Actually, don't answer that.”

“Wrestling,” Ghostcaller answered. “He started it by kicking me off the bed.”

“You wouldn't leave me alone to study!” Sharptongue snapped, sweeping his tail towards him. Ghostcaller hopped onto the bed again.

“See?” Ghostcaller looked to his brother, who just sighed and shook his head.

“Just be careful.” He picked the bowl back up and looked to Sharptongue. “If it turns black, tell me.” He headed back out of the cave.

“So I won't die from this?” Sharptongue asked. “You aren't the hidden assassin?”

“If I was I'd have killed you already,” Ghostcaller answered with a shrug. That didn't really help Sharptongue feel any better, but at least he knew his cavemate didn't mean him any harm. He slowly got up, careful not to move too fast just in case, and grabbed the scroll again so he could study. He heard Ghostcaller sigh and tried to ignore him, as well as ignore the prophecy that refused to leave his mind long enough to let him focus.

 


	7. ~With Open Hearts and Minds~

“I'm telling you it's completely and totally normal!” Sharptongue's ears were greeted with the sound of Ghostcaller talking to someone as he headed into one of the caves designed for relaxing and just hanging out, trying to convince them of something. Sharptongue wasn't entirely sure he wanted to know what they were talking about, but he was going to anyway.

It was a large cave with couches lining the sides of it and a few tables with comfy looking giant cloth seats stuffed with feathers for the dragonets to relax in. Most of the classes had yet to end so it was fairly empty, with the exception of Ghostcaller, Walrus and Pyrope who shared a literature class and had gotten out at the same time.

Cuttlefish was with Sharptongue, having been in history with him and happily joined the group, hopping up into one of the seats. “Hi everyone!” she greeted. “What are you talking about?”

“Ghostcaller's mind is crazy,” Pyrope answered. Walrus nodded in agreement.

“A pure miracle,” he said as that sentence made any sense. Sharptongue just rolled his eyes and walked over to drag another seat over since all of the ones at the table were already taken.

“Tell them it's normal to be able to do math in your head,” Ghostcaller said to Sharptongue as he sat down. “They think it isn't.”

“Simple math problems sure,” Pyrope huffed. “But not like you.”

“Explain, please,” Sharptongue said. “Because you lost me at 'math'.”

“It-just-Ghostcaller, what's six hundred and twelve plus four hundred thirteen minus nine and plus eight?” Pyrope asked.

“One thousand twenty four,” Ghostcaller answered immediately. “That is completely normal.”

“It really isn't,” Sharptongue answered, staring at him in disbelief. “Seventy three plus eighty one minus ninety six?”

“Fifty eight.”

“Nine times seven,” Cuttlefish tried.

“Sixty- hey, woah, nice try, but I'm not doing your math work for you,” Ghostcaller huffed indignantly. Cuttlefish sighed and rested her chin against the table, defeated. Pyrope let out a laugh at her pathetic attempt. Sharptongue, meanwhile, was still staring at Ghostcaller with wide eyes.

“That's amazing!” he gasped. “Are any other dragons able to do that?”

“I hope so,” Ghostcaller groaned. “I don't want to be this special math animus or something like that. I'm normal.”

“Please, you're about as normal as everyone else in this room,” Sharptongue said. Cuttlefish covered her mouth with her talons as she giggled and Pyrope laughed again. Walrus chuckled a little as well.

“Wow, you can draw, play music, read minds and do math instantly,” he said. “Is there anything you _can't_ do?” Ghostcaller tapped a talon against the table as he thought and then shrugged. Sharptongue took it as an 'I don't know'. _He can fight pretty good too. There's got to be_ something _he's not good at._

“Wait, what does he mean by 'you can draw'?” he asked.

“After Hurricane pranked me and I chased him around the school, I went to the art cave for a bit,” he answered. “Pyrope, Walrus and Leopard were here so I hung out with them for a while. I'm not that good at it, really. It's just a hobby. I prefer music.” He showed a knowing look with Sharptongue and the NightWing found himself thinking calming, happy thoughts in response.

“What about the rest of you?” Ghostcaller swept his gaze around the group. “What are you good at?”

“I'm real good at swimming,” Walrus answered. “I can bake a good pie, too.”

“I like to take care of injured sea life!” Cuttlefish said. “At least, the ones we don't eat, anyway. We don't eat whales unless they're already dead and we don't eat dolphins either. Some old law that Queen Coral put in place and never got changed.”

“I can't understand how anyone can eat whale, even if it's already dead,” Ghostcaller was scowling. “A trader brought some whale meat to Sanctuary and let me try some. It was too chewy for my liking.”

“It's not so bad,” Walrus said with a lopsided grin. “I prefer fish myself, but the blubber is fattening and keeps you alive through the cold winter.”

“I'm a pretty good artist myself,” Pyrope said, puffing out her chest. “I'm not quite as good at it as Ghostcaller, but I manage.”

“You're blind,” Sharptongue pointed out, not convinced in the slightest. “How can you be an artist if you're blind?” He jerked back as Pyrope almost leaped across the table, shoving her nose in his face as she let out a cackling laugh, lips curled back in a toothy grin. Sharptongue felt his ears burning.

“I smell colors,” she said before settling back in her seat. Unnerved and now very intimidated, Sharptongue decided not to question her logic any further. Ghostcaller snickered and Sharptongue hit him with his tail.

“There you are!” Oddeyes walked over to them and then paused for a moment. “Why am I not surprised that you and GC are hanging out again?”

“Shut up!” Sharptongue hissed. “He's my cavemate it's impossible to escape him. Get over here and join us, weirdface.” Oddeyes snickered and joined them at the table, squeezing between Sharptongue and Ghostcaller.

“You guys want to head to the couches instead?” Ghostcaller asked. “There's more room.” Everyone quickly agreed and moved to the couches.

“Ghost, hey!” Hurricane came bounding over with Jade right behind him. The two quickly joined them and Sharptongue found himself squished between Pyrope and Ghostcaller as they shuffled around to make room. For once, Sharptongue was happy that he was small.

“Sharptongue!” Sharptongue turned and spotted Lightweaver heading towards them. Rime was trailing behind, but he quickly raced over to sit next to Cuttlefish. Lightweaver frowned when she realized there was no room left on the couch and instead dragged over a seat to join them.

“Found them!” Snow Leopard raced in and skidded to a stop. Behind her was Bull and Horse. Horse settled down next to the couch and Snow Leopard climbed up onto his back. Horse seemed a little irritated, but didn't protest or tell her to get off. He must've been used to it.

Bull settled down beside him and frowned, ducking his head when he saw Tarantula walk in. She kept her distance from Bull as best he could and started a conversation with Pyrope, but Sharptongue could feel the tension in the air. Rose saved them from too much awkwardness as she walked in and sat down beside Lightweaver, smiling.

“Why did no one invite me to this party?” Jewelsnatcher trotted on in, grinning. The sight of the light reflecting off the silver scales behind his eyes made anxiety flare up in Sharptongue's stomach, but he quickly squashed it back down. She couldn't read his mind. He was immune. Three moons, it would take a while to get used to that. He felt Ghostcaller reach over and give him a little pat on the talon under the table and out of sight from the others.

“Because you'd invite yourself anyway,” Ghostcaller replied. Jewelsnatcher gave him a grin as she sat down.

“Hey, where's Flare?” Sharptongue asked as he noticed one particular dragon missing. He hadn't seen the SkyWing in a while.

“Who's Flare?” Jewelsnatcher asked.

“My friend,” Oddeyes answered. “She was the dark red SkyWing you met the first day. “Orange underside and brown eyes?”

“She's...not on the student list,” Jewelsnatcher seemed concerned now. “Are you absolutely sure she's here? I mean, I remember seeing her, but I figured she was just a friend dropping someone off.”

“Of course she's on the student list, she...” Oddeyes frowned and looked down, digging his claws into the stone table. “She has to be.”

“Interesting,” Rose said. “Has anyone had any classes with her?” Silence followed that question. “Mystery solved, she isn't a student and has likely just been hanging out somewhere.”

“Why would someone who isn't a student be here?” Sharptongue challenged. “She's no teacher either.”

“What?” Oddeyes frowned and glared at him. “Okay, no, no, no and no again. She is not the assassin and she is not going to hurt anyone. Okay, she might hurt Tarantula but she has it coming.” Tarantula let out an offended noise.

“Assassin?” Rime echoed, looking very alarmed. “What's all this about an assassin?”

“Is someone trying to hurt you?” Jewelsnatcher hissed, the spikes on her back raising.

“No, it's, ugh.” Ghostcaller let out a sigh. “Lightweaver? Explain the prophecy, please.”

“Prophecy!?” The table exploded into an excited clamor. They only quieted down after Sharptongue had to roar at them to do so long enough for Lightweaver to tell them the prophecy.

“We already agreed it's for Sharptongue and not anyone else,” Ghostcaller said immediately after Lightweaver finished. “But I think I'm with Oddeyes on this one, Sharptongue. Rose said the assassin was someone from Sanctuary and Flare's not from there.”

“I said it _might_ be someone from Sanctuary.” Rose frowned. “I never said they were. I saw you and Osprey recognize the dragon in a vision so by process of elimination I figured it must have been someone from Sanctuary if you both recognized them, but now that I think about it, it could be anyone from the school. Osprey isn't the type of person to forget a face, even if he's only met someone once.”

“Or, you know, it could be someone else,” Ghostcaller hissed. Sharptongue felt him stiffen, claws tapping rapidly and tail curling up in a defensive position. Sharptongue immediately sent some happier, calmer thoughts his way, wondering to himself about just who he was talking about.

“He doesn't work for anyone,” Jewelsnatcher spat bitterly. “Trust me, Ghostcaller, we're safe from him, at least. There's no way he would know we're here. Besides, Osprey didn't know him that well anyway.”

“Why would anyone want to kill Sharptongue, though?” Snow Leopard asked. “He's not that bad.”

“It's because of my parents,” Sharptongue sighed. “Apparently they were criminals who the SeaWing queen hated for some reason. They almost started a war between the SeaWings and NightWings and it's possible their followers are the ones I need to stop before they finish what my parents started. Also I'm kind of descended from the royal SeaWing line and could be a threat to the throne.” Cuttlefish was squirming in her seat uncomfortably, frowning and staring down at her talons.

“It's not Flare,” Oddeyes insisted. “I'll talk to her about it when I see her again, but for right now I don't want anyone calling her evil or an assassin.”

“Then who could it be?” Walrus asked. “Certainly not one of the students. I don't think the school would let an assassin in, would it?”

“They let Tarantula in,” Sharptongue hear Bull mumble. Tarantula shot him a glare, red waves passing through her wings and ruff as she flared her ruff open and let out a hiss. Sharptongue was thankful when Horse glared at them both and the two backed down, grumbling.

“Hey, stop that,” Horse said. “We do not need any infighting when an assassin threatens our companion.”

“Is he _really_ our friend, though?” Tarantula asked. “I mean, we haven't even known him for a week.”

“Of course he's our friend!” Hurricane snapped, scales turning redder than Tarantula's. “Someone's going to try to kill him for no reason and we can't let them do that!”

“I feel there is information we are missing,” Lightweaver spoke up, looking to Cuttlefish, who had been eerily silent for the whole conversation. “Cuttlefish, is there something you are not telling us?”

“It's just...we got so close to war with the NightWings because of Cr- Sharptongue's parents,” Cuttlefish blurted out. “They might be scared you'll try to finish what they started. I know you're supposed to stop their followers and I really hope you do, but mother might not want to take that chance. We don't want to risk a war after we've had peace for so long.”

“That's the worst reason I've ever heard,” Ghostcaller snarled. “You can't blame the dragonet for their parents' stupid choices. Sharptongue is _nothing_ like his parents.” Sharptongue stared at Ghostcaller, eyes wide.

“He's right,” Rose agreed. “The dragonets shouldn't suffer for what their parents choose. I can see no path where he becomes evil.”

Sharptongue was startled by the bitterness in the hybrids' voices. Their sister, Jewelsnatcher, was growling softly as well, eyes burning in fury. Sharptongue could see Ghostcaller's tail curl up in a tight spiral, twitching towards an enemy that didn't even exist.

“What's going on?” Osprey walked into the room, frowning when he saw how furious his family looked.

“Someone's going to try to kill Sharptongue just because his parents tried to start a war,” Ghostcaller answered sharply. Osprey's tail coiled up like Ghostcaller's but he remained calm.

“We'll stop them,” he said. “Keep an eye out for anything suspicious, but we also need to focus on school.” Everyone nodded. “We're here for a reason, after all.”

“Wait,” Jewelsnatcher spoke up. “Sharptongue is related to the royal SeaWing family? Doesn't that mean you're Turquoise's and Cuttlefish's cousin or something like that?” Sharptongue nodded.

“Yeah, let's maybe not talk about that, please,” he said. The others stared at him, minds full of questions he knew they wanted to ask but wouldn't out of respect. He noticed Ghostcaller still seemed pretty tense. “Hey, Ghostcaller, what's one thousand nine hundred ninety-four minus four plus thirty six?”

“Two thousand twenty-six,” Ghostcaller answered instantly, relaxing as his claws tapped against the stone table for a moment. The others turned to stare at him. “What?”

“Dude, what the deer dung was that?” Oddeyes questioned.

“Oh, come on!” Ghostcaller groaned dramatically. “It is completely normal for me to do that!”

“No, it's not,” a majority of the others answered. Ghostcaller just huffed and rested his chin on the table, giving Sharptongue a frustrated 'this is your fault' look.

Osprey shook his head, fighting back a smile. “I think it should be noted that absolutely no one at this table right now is normal, even a little bit.” No one could really argue with that.

“Well, I for one think that being normal is overrated,” Rose said. “Though it does bring up the question that if everyone is different and no one is normal, does normal even exist?”

“It is way too early for that late-night theorizing stuff,” Oddeyes said with a loud groan. Lightweaver tried to muffle a soft laugh.

“So, who agrees to not to think about that ominous prophecy until it starts to unfold? All in favor say 'aye'.” An immediate chorus of 'aye's rang across the table before Jewelsnatcher could even finish. Rime kept silent, frowning, though he didn't protest either so Sharptongue figured he was just neutral on the whole subject.

“I'm going to see if I can find Flare,” Oddeyes said. Everyone had to move so he could leave. Cuttlefish scrambled after him, refusing to look Sharptongue in the eyes, or at all.

“I'll come with you!” she said. Oddeyes blinked at in surprise, but then shrugged and headed off with the princess right behind him. Rime watched them leave, jaw dropped, before he huffed and hurried to follow, stepping on a few tails and earning him some yelps and growls along the way. He didn't even bother to apologize.

“What was _that_ about?” Snow Leopard asked, ears pricked forward curiously.

Sharptongue just covered his face with his talons and groaned, “It is too early in the year for a love triangle to unfold. I swear, they better keep that as far away from us as possible because there is no way I am going to help any of them with that mess.” Jewelsnatcher barked a laugh and Osprey just shook his head again, wisely choosing to keep quiet about that subject.

“Even without a prophecy rearing it's rather unsightly head in our direction I can foresee this year will be quite interesting,” Lightweaver stated. Sharptongue knew she was probably joking, but at the same time he also knew she was serious. What he didn't know is if he should be concerned about that or not and if it would be a good or a bad year. He was really hoping it would be a good year. The past week had enough drama already to last him a lifetime in his opinion. He didn't know if he could stand a whole year of that.

“I'd better go find Turquoise,” Jewelsnatcher said. “You don't mind if I tell her you're cousins, right, Sharptongue?”

“She'll find out eventually,” Sharptongue answered. “Might as well get it over with now.” Jewelsnatcher nodded and headed off to find her cavemate.

“Hey, Bull, why don't we go whip up a few words of miraculous poetry?” Walrus suggested, poking Bull a couple times. The MudWing's eyes brightened and he nodded, grinning.

“Yeah, that sounds fun,” he said. The two took off to either the library or their cave. The others started to make excuses to leave as well; Osprey invited Rose and Lightweaver to join him in the library, Hurriance and Jade deciding to tag along with them. Tarantula and Pyrope excused themselves and headed off to where Sharptongue guessed the art cave was and Horse and Snow Leopard headed off to do some hunting. Pretty soon, it was just Sharptongue and Ghostcaller.

“Why is it always us stuck together?” Sharptongue cast an accusing look Ghostcaller's way. “I feel like it's some big conspiracy.”

“Well, it could be,” Ghostcaller answered seriously. “Rose has been awful pushy about us becoming friends.”

“Yeah, speaking of which, what was that about?” Sharptongue questioned. “You got really defensive when dragons blaming me for my parents stuff was brought up.” Ghostcaller shook his head and got up.

“I don't know if I want to answer that right now,” he said.

“You said last night that you knew what it was like to have a dad who wasn't a good dragon,” Sharptongue pressed on. “You said if I wanted to talk you would be here to listen. We've spent the past few days spilling our deepest secrets to each other despite barely knowing each other. Can't you please just tell me?”

Ghostcaller hesitated and swept his gaze around the room before leading Sharptongue away to one of the caves farther down. It was darker and emptier than the other caves and it didn't really have anything to sit on or anything in it, really. There weren't any windows and it was clear the cave wasn't meant for anything just yet, if at all.

“You have to swear to me you won't tell anyone about this, got it?” Ghostcaller hissed to Sharptongue. Confused, the NightWing just nodded and tucked his tail close to himself. Ghostcaller took a deep breath and continued, “Okay, well, it's kind of the reason I left the rainforest. Dad never cared much for me, probably because I looked nothing like a NightWing. I don't know because he barely ever spoke to me. He forced me to hunt for myself and taught me how to fight.”

“They're from him,” Sharptongue breathed. “The scars, I mean. He gave those to you.” Fury boiled up in him as everything started to fall into place. Ghostcaller's alertness, the way he could flip from laughing his tail off to emotionless and guarding himself behind a wall of false calmness in an instant, the fierce protectiveness over dragons he cared for, even if he just met them...The more he thought about it the more it made sense and the more it made Sharptongue feel sick.

“Yeah, I know.” Ghostcaller forced a grin when he heard the enraged song in Sharptongue's mind. “I'd rip his face off, too, if I could. I went to far the day we left the rainforest. I don't know what came over me but I just got this real big surge of confidence and insulted him to his face. He probably would have killed me if Jewelsnatcher hadn't gotten involved. He could never kill her, but he didn't take kindly to her taking my side. It was the last straw so she tranquilized him while he slept and we got out of there.”

“I'm so sorry.” Sharptongue threw himself into the hybrid and wrapped his wings and talons around him. Ghostcaller returned the hug slowly, resting his head on Sharptongue's. “You shouldn't have gone through that. If he ever shows his ugly face here I'll burn his eyes out.” Ghostcaller wriggled back to look down at him.

“Don't,” he said. “My dad's a better fighter than me. He'll kill you.”

“I'll take him down with me,” Sharptongue insisted.

“You're unbelievable.” Ghostcaller shook his head, smiling.

“Wait, it doesn't bother you, does it?” Sharptongue asked quickly, pulling back. “I mean, me always shoving you or kicking you or insulting you or-”

“It's fine.” Ghostcaller was laughing a little now. “Sharptongue, I may not be able to read your mind, but you speak it anyway. The only secrets you've kept about yourself are about your powers and I can understand why you do that. You're loud and I know what to expect from you. You're the exact opposite of my dad so don't go thinking you're anything like him.” Sharptongue relaxed, but a part of him was still greatly concerned. He tucked his wings tightly to his side.

“Thanks for telling me about this,” he said softly. “I'm so sorry you had to go through that.”

“It made me stronger, in some twisted, messed up way.” Ghostcaller shrugged. “I know how to defend myself and how to treat injuries. I can hunt pretty well, too. It's not something I enjoyed, but I guess it was necessary to some extent.”

“No, it wasn't!” Sharptongue protested with a hiss. “It wasn't necessary at all! I can hunt and treat injuries! I can defend myself! I learned all of that from Starfall without her taking it too far! What happened to you wasn't normal, Ghostcaller, you didn't deserve any of that!”

Ghostcaller pressed his forehead to Sharptongue's. “You can say what you want about me deserving it,” he murmured. “It won't change the past, so don't worry about it, okay?”

“I can't just not worry about it,” Sharptongue growled. “He was horrible to you.”

“It's _over_ ,” Ghostcaller said sternly. “He can't hurt me anymore.”

Sharptongue stared at the tinted glass that always kept Ghostcaller's eyes from view. Now that he thought about it, he was fairly certain the SandWing slept with those things on. He slowly reached up and Ghostcaller jerked back the second he knew what Sharptongue was up to, grabbing the NightWing's talon and shoving it back down.

“No,” he said sharply. When he saw Sharptongue flinch he hastily added, “Look, I-it's not-ugh, just, let me do it.” He moved the glass up, avoiding eye contact.

His eyes were the same shape as his sister's and without the glass covering his eyes it was even more obvious the two were twins. However, instead of the light shade of lavender of Rose's eyes, his were the last color Sharptongue would have expected from any dragon, especially for Ghostcaller; red.

Red was a color of passion or anger, a color that represented danger in some cases. Red meant blood and gore or even poison in animals and plants. Many dragons had joked by saying red was Sharptongue's color, for how much rage and passion he had inside, and yet here Ghostcaller was with it instead, the exact opposite of all it's meanings. He was not an angry dragon, rarely showed his emotions and he definitely was not dangerous or poisonous to Sharptongue.

Sharptongue didn't even realize he'd been staring until Ghostcaller quirked an eyebrow, a smirk forming on his lips. “What? I mean, I know I'm good looking, but come on. Do I need to keep the glasses on for your safety and to keep you from getting distracted?”

“Screw you, you lemur faced piece of cow dung!” Sharptongue spat at him, giving him a rough shove. “I was just surprised! They're just eyes, there's not really anything special about them.” Ghostcaller just laughed in response when Sharptongue tried to walk away. His tail flicked up, sliding under the NightWing's chin and forcing him to stop and look back at him. Sharptongue could feel his ears burning with embarrassment as he found himself staring back at Ghostcaller's eyes.

“Come on, I was just joking,” Ghostcaller said softly. “No need to throw a tantrum over it.” Sharptongue managed to hiss out another halfhearted insult at him.

“Is this why you wear those things?” he questioned. “Because your eyes are weird?”

“Not really,” Ghostcaller answered, tail whisking away from Sharptongue as he tried to nip it, deciding he had enough of the annoying and dangerous appendage being so close to his face. “My eyes are sensitive to the light. It wasn't much of a problem back in the rainforest, since we lived at the floor where not much light tends to reach, especially at night, but after we moved to sanctuary it did become a problem. Hurricane's the one who suggested the idea and Jewelsnatcher made them. I felt kind of awkward being the only one wearing them so Osprey asked Jewelsnatcher to make him a pair so I wasn't alone.”

“Your family is sickeningly sweet sometimes, you know that?” Sharptongue snorted with amusement. He couldn't help but wonder if Ghostcaller's pure white scales, with hints of pink, and the unnatural eye color had something to do with each other. Had an animus cursed him while he was in the egg? There hadn't been any animus dragons in a long time, so Sharptongue couldn't be sure about that. An old family curse, perhaps?

“You're thinking again,” Ghostcaller said. When Sharptongue gave him a look he added, “You make a face when you start thinking real hard. Also your music turns kind of soft and slow. Though, 'soft' is a bit of a stretch with your mind.” Sharptongue glared at him and thought of the loudest and most obnoxious things as possible. Ghostcaller laughed, tail tapping to the beat.

“I was just wondering if your scales and eyes might have something to do with each other,” Sharptongue said as he focused on keeping his thoughts upbeat. “Aside from the color of your scales and eyes and the barb on your tail, you and Rose might look exactly alike. Isn't it weird how your scales are all white and your eyes are red and sensitive to light but her scales are full of color and her eyes fine with the light, despite being weird?”

“Rose did a little research about that,” Ghostcaller answered, stretching his legs and laying down. “I'm not the only weird dragon like this. It's fairly rare from what she said, but it happens. There's this thing that's the total opposite of what I've got, where a dragon is pure black, even their eyes. No one knows what causes it just yet, but they've all decided it's just another weird thing about us dragons as a species.”

“So it's natural, then? I don't have to worry about your safety?” Sharptongue asked, laying beside him. Ghostcaller nodded, draping a wing over him. Sharptongue swept his gaze around the dark room. It wasn't big nor was it all that small. No dragons seemed to come down so far, either. “Hey, could this be our cave?”

“What?” Ghostcaller asked.

“I mean our cave is fine, but our cavemates are normally there,” Sharptongue explained. “There's very few places for us to just sit down and talk without being overheard or someone barging in. Well, this cave seems like a good place to come to if we ever need to talk about something bothering us without anyone else listening in.” Ghostcaller stared down at him, eyes widening slightly and brows raising, a grin spreading across his face. Without his glasses, it was a lot easier for Sharptongue to see what he was thinking. So used to the glass hiding his eyes, Ghostcaller didn't bother trying to keep them emotionless. If he knew how to, he certainly wasn't trying it around Sharptongue, at least.

“What is this, one of your romance novels?” Ghostcaller joked. “Asking me to meet you in the dark cave, all alone, just the two of us where no one else can see?”

“I didn't mean it like that and you know it!” Sharptongue snapped, hitting the SandWing with his wing. “I meant it in a platonic way!”

“So this is going to be our feelings jam room, then?” Ghostcaller asked in a more serious tone. “It sounds good to me. Plus, I don't have to keep my glasses on in here. I love them and I love my sister for making them, but I don't like wearing them all the time. It's nice to take them off once in a while.”

“We should probably head back to our actual cave now,” Sharptongue said as he started to get up.

“Hey, wait.” Ghostcaller reached up and gave Sharptongue's wing a gentle tug. “Maybe we could stay here a little longer?”

Sharptongue figured he should say no, but he ended up agreeing anyway. He lay back down beside the SandWing and they chatted for a while long about anything that came to mind. They tried to keep their voices quiet so no one would hear and find their hiding place, but Sharptongue found that fairly difficult. It wasn't until they finally headed back to their cave and the glasses were hiding Ghostcaller's eyes again did a shocking realization hit Sharptongue like a boulder tumbling down a mountain to crush him.

Sharptongue could see now why Ghostcaller was so hesitant to show his eyes to him or anyone for that matter. His eyes didn't hide anything and there was something very, _very_ familiar about the way Ghostcaller looked at him, watching his every move. It was a look that Sharptongue had seen plenty of times in both books and in real life when watching others interact and even on the dragon he hated with every fiber of his being.

Ghostcaller saw Sharptongue as something much more than just a friend.

 

 

 


	8. ~The Brewing Storm~

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Another huge thank you to all the comments and kudos for this work! I love every last one of you and one of my commentators pointed out that it was a little bit confusing to tell which HS character was which dragon so I'll give you all a list here with some trivia behind the names;  
> Sharptongue- Karkat. Originally I was going to name him Crab, but I didn't want his SeaWing ancestry to be too obvious so I gave that name to his father instead.  
> Lightweaver- Kanaya. A bit of a reference to her being a literal nightlight and her love of sewing in the comic.   
> Oddeyes- Sollux. I was thinking of giving him a more "Edgy" name like Doomspeaker, but I figured Oddeyes would be good enough.  
> Hurricane- John. I thought of naming him Tornado, but I wasn't sure if Pyrrhia even gets tornadoes, so I went with Hurricane instead. A slight reference to him being half SkyWing and the famous Windy Thing he can do in the comic.  
> Ghostcaller- Dave. Dave's name was difficult to figure out, but it's a hint to him being half NightWing as well as his ability to call upon doomed Daves from alternate timelines to help him in the comic.  
> Bull- Tavros. Bulls are associated with the Taurus sign, which is Tavros's sign and well is lusus was a fairybull.  
> Osprey- Dirk. I was originally going to name him Seagull or just Gull, but I wanted to give him a name that was a bit more intimidating. Ospreys are a bird of prey that live near the ocean, so I went with that instead. It's a slight reference to how he grew up in the middle of a flooded apocalyptic earth.  
> Snow Leopard- Nepeta. I just wanted to name her after a wild cat.  
> Rose- This one's obvious. I didn't feel any need to change her name since there are desert roses.  
> Flare- Aradia. A bit of a reference to how she flared back to life suddenly in the comics, like a fire.  
> Pyrope- Terezi. Pyropes are a kind of gem and also Terezi's last name in the comic.  
> Horse- Equius. I don't think I need to explain this one.  
> Walrus- Gamzee. I wanted to name him after a creature that lives in both the land and water, because of his lusus in the comic. A small reference to an old Homestuck AU that was popular a while back.  
> Rime- Eridan. There is a dang good reason behind this name, but that's a spoiler for future chapters. Looking what Rime is might help you form some theories, but I won't be confirming or denying them until the chapter comes out.  
> Tarantula- Vriska. I wanted to give her a name associated with a kind of spider. I was very tempted to name her Black Widow at first.  
> Cuttlefish- Feferi. A little reference to the cuttlefish she cared for in the comic as well as her chum handle.  
> Jewelsnatcher- Roxy. Kind of a reference to her being a Rogue in the comic. There's another reason for it but spoilers.  
> Jungle- Jake. A hint to him being half RainWing and also a reference to where he grew up in the comic. Seriously that island was a jungle.  
> Turquoise- Jane. Her name was tough for me, too. I settled on Turquoise because it's a color similar to the one she types in in the comic and matches her scale color in the story.  
> Jade- No explanation needed here.  
> All other characters in this are ones I created entirely for this fanfic, have had for a while or belong to other people.  
> I hope I didn't miss anybody.
> 
> A quick warning; There are mentions of self hatred in this chapter.

Sharptongue tried to avoid thinking too hard about the new information he had learned about Ghostcaller. For the next few days or so Sharptongue managed to keep a decent schedule going regarding the rest of his friend group. He learned more about the subjects he was stuck in, took a few extra lessons after class and even managed to learn more about his friends' families.

Unfortunately, for as nice as his new friend group was and as fun as school was turning out to be, his classes were not as easy as he thought they would be. Sure, Ghostcaller could help with math and a majority of the other classes he had didn't involve too much work, if any at all, but there was another subject that was quickly becoming the bane of his existence; history.

“Your mind is as weird as Ghostcaller's if you think that history is actually interesting,” Sharptongue said. Rime huffed and tried to keep an air of dignity around himself, which really didn't work since one needed dignity to keep it.

“Well, clearly you're too wrapped up in your little fantasies to care for what's going on in the real world,” Rime replied. Sharptongue snarled at him and looked back down at his history notes. How was he supposed to memorize over five thousand years of history in a single year?

“Did the first animus show up during or after The Scorching?” he asked his makeshift tutor. He had asked everyone else he knew before crawling to Rime, something he normally wouldn't do, but he could not afford to fail this class. He couldn't stand the thought of Starfall's disappointed face staring down at him when she found out about it.

“After,” Rime answered. “It was a few hundred years after the Scorching. History has all but wiped out what we know of the one who brought animus powers to Pyrrhia, but we do know the IceWing tribe had the first animus, a hybrid of some sort.” Rime held his head high again and puffed his chest out. Sharptongue rolled his eyes. As accepting as the IceWings had become after Darkstalker's second fall, they still believed they were the best of all the tribes. Snow Leopard didn't act like that, thankfully, but even Horse, who wasn't even a purebred, acted like he was the best dragon to exist in years. Walrus was, well, Walrus so Sharptongue wasn't sure if he could be counted or not. Even if he didn't count, Walrus was like a breath of fresh air compared to the others along with Snow Leopard.

“Hey,” Sharptongue hissed and grabbed Rime's snout, forcing him to look back at him when he caught him glaring daggers at Oddeyes and Cuttlefish across the room. Oddeyes was apparently helping Cuttlefish out with math, being almost as good at it as Ghostcaller.

“Keep your eyes on me, you carcass licking seagull,” Sharptongue snapped. “You agreed to help me out with my history and that's what we're doing, got it? You can deal with your crush on the SeaWing princess and your burning hatred for my dragonethood friend later, preferably in a non-violent way.”

“It's not a crush,” Rime huffed in protest. He then grinned and added, “But, I mean, if you really want my eyes on you and only you-”

“Stop,” Sharptongue snapped. “We are knocking that flight out of the proverbial sky that is your thoughts. It's fallen and crashed into a little village of tiny scavengers who are now all dying under the horrible, mutilated weight of that thought. It was the final scavenger village in all of Pyrrhia and now scavengers are extinct because of it. Good job, you're a horrible dragon for trying to flirt with me when we should be studying.” Rime wrenched his head out of Sharptongue's grip.

“Can't blame a guy for trying,” he said. “I mean, you're not all that bad looking, for a NightWing.”

“Shut up or so help me I'll shove your head so far down a cow's throat it'll come out the other end,” Sharptongue threatened. “One more flirtation like that and I'll end this study session for the rest of your life.”

“Fine, fine,” Rime sighed dramatically. “Whatever. You read a lot of romance novels, right?”

“I literally just got done saying-”

“I'm not redirecting it towards you,” Rime interrupted. “I'm just wondering if there's a way I can get Cuttlefish to notice me.” Sharptongue rolled his eyes again, talon tapping irritably against the stone table. He stopped the second he caught himself doing it. Ghostcaller was rubbing off on him.

“How about you just be yourself and talk to her?” Sharptongue said slowly through gritted teeth. “Let her choose what she wants and what she thinks is best for her. Contrary to popular belief, dragons know what's best for themselves more than anyone else and it's not your decision to make on who she dates. Now can you _please_ stop worrying about your love-life and help me with my history work? I'm not here to help dragons with their relationship issues.”

Rime clearly didn't want that to be the end of the conversation, but he agreed and the two studied for an hour or so longer before Sharptongue decided they should stop before his head exploded and they took a quick break, heading off to get a snack. One question kept nagging Sharptongue in the back of his mind and he finally gave in to all the mental self prodding and turned to Rime.

“How do you know Princess Cuttlefish anyway?” he asked. “IceWings and SeaWings live clear on the other side of the continent from one another and it's not like SeaWings will get too close to the frigid north.”

“I'm the son of the leader of the royal guard and nephew of Queen Penguin herself,” Rime huffed, raising his head high again. “She took me along once on a diplomatic trip to visit Queen Shoal and Cuttle and I have been friends ever since.” Sharptongue was sure that Rime was leaving out a few details, or lying outright, but didn't try to press him for more information.

They made it to the prey center, which was fairly empty now that a majority of dragons had gotten something to eat that day. Jade spotted them and she smiled, bounding over to chat with them. Rime busied himself with searching for just the right fish to eat, leaving Sharptongue to be the one stuck in a conversation with the RainWing.

“I didn't expect to see you two here so late,” Jade said. Sharptongue frowned at her. He still wasn't sure what to make of the hybrid and her weird powers.

“Sharptongue asked me for help on his history work,” Rime finally spoke up, carrying a trout over to one of the tables. Sharptongue snatched up a hawk and joined him. Jade followed them and sat down on the other side of the table, smiling.

“It's really nice of you to help him like that,” she said to Rime, as if the IceWing's ego needed to get bigger.

“At this rate your ego will be bigger than Jade Mountain,” Sharptongue hissed. Rime ignored him, but Jade frowned a little at him.

“No need to be rude,” she said. “Don't worry, silly, I'm sure you'll get better in history class.” Sharptongue just let out a growl and ate his hawk.

“Are you worried about the prophecy?” Rime asked. Sharptongue choked on his hawk and coughed. When he was no longer dying, he shot Rime a glare, curling his lips back as best he could as he gasped for breath.

“No!” he spat. “I am not worried about some stupid prophecy! It's a _prophecy_! It's going to come true no matter what and that clearly means I'll live long enough to stop whatever's coming from my parents' followers!”

“But there's a big 'if' in that prophecy,” Jade pointed out. “ _If only they can first avoid their assassin_.” Sharptongue could barely suppress a flinch.

“I'll be fine,” he insisted. “I'll stop them, I know I will. I have to.”

“Not alone you can't,” Rime said. “One four year old against an army of rebels? You'll die.”

“I won't be alone,” Sharptongue snapped at him. “I'll have help from the others in the prophecy, whoever they are.”

“Well, I know I'm your Wings of Ice,” Rime said. “Cuttlefish must be your Wings of Sea.”

“How do you know that?” Sharptongue challenged. “What if Walrus is the Wings of Ice? Or Snow Leopard or even Horse?” Horse was a bit of a stretch and he was technically a MudWing according to the school, but he still counted to Sharptongue as an IceWing.

“Please, such low-born IceWings could never have a destiny as great as this.” Rime frowned at him. And just like that, Sharptongue got up and decided he had enough of that conversation.

“Maybe it's not just one dragon,” Jade suggested as Sharptongue started to get up. He paused and looked over at her. “Maybe it's more than one. Maybe it's not referring to us by our tribe names, but by our abilities.”

“Maybe you're just crazy,” Sharptongue said bitterly as he kept walking. Prophecies were weird and cryptic most of the time, sometimes warping details into meaning the exact opposite of what one might think. A part of him believed Jade was right, that it was multiple dragons and wasn't based of tribe, but at the same time Sharptongue had enough of that conversation and he had no intention to continue it with Rime. He immediately headed down to his cave.

“You okay out there, brother?” Walrus called as Sharptongue stormed past his cave. Ghostcaller and Hurricane weren't anywhere in sight, so Sharptongue headed in to join Walrus in his cave instead.

“Dragons have been bugging me about the prophecy,” Sharptongue answered. “You don't need to worry about it. It's my problem.”

“No fault in caring,” Walrus replied with his signature sleepy smile. “Come on over. The ice feels like a miracle and it can cool that anger down in no time.” Sharptongue lay close to the ice slab, not touching it but close enough to where the chill felt nice on his scales. It was unbearably hot outside, so the drop in temperature was welcome.

“They think I won't be able to fulfill the prophecy,” Sharptongue growled. “They think that I'll fail.”

“Did they say that?” Walrus asked. “Or was it a thing you made up in your mind?” Sharptongue frowned at him.

“They implied it,” he said. “And Jade started spouting nonsense about the Wings of Whatever being based on the abilities of a dragon, not their exact tribe, which is ridiculous.”

“I don't know if you've noticed this, my brother, but the world is changing,” Walrus said. “Some dragons are a mix of so many tribes these days no one knows what they really are. It'll still be a real long time before the original seven tribes truly vanish, but one day the family lines will get so tangled together that they'll have to find a new way to classify them, new names. Basing those new names off their abilities seems like a mighty fine system to me. It's a miracle how far we've come from The Scorching and the SandWing War.”

Sharptongue listened to Walrus in silence, taking the information and letting it sit in his mind long enough to think it over. Walrus was right, he realized. It was very rare, but sometimes he would hear of dragons who looked like a mix of several tribes-if not all of them-back at the Night Kingdom whenever the traders visited on their travels. The process was a very slow one, but with hybrids becoming more and more common, with how friendly the tribes had been in the recent years with one another, soon it would be impossible to tell a dragon's exact tribe. They would have nothing but their abilities to go off of, if they even wanted to keep labels.

Sharptongue turned his gaze down to the ground. That hadn't happened yet and probably wouldn't in his lifetime, possibly not even in the lifetime of his dragonets, if he had any, so he didn't see the point of the prophecy not calling the dragons by their official tribe names. It was pointless to him, but it wasn't like he could control what the prophecy said.

“Rime was really rude about you, too,” Sharptongue said. “He said a low-born IceWing like you couldn't have a great destiny like fulfilling a prophecy.”

“Well, he don't got no right to say something like that,” Walrus replied, resting his head down on the ice. “But at the same time he's right. Normally dragons like me don't have a place in prophecies. But it is a miraculous thing how we're all drawn to each other. We don't have many friends outside our little group, do we? It's like we were destined to meet.”

“What do you think?” Sharptongue asked. “About the prophecy, I mean. Do you think you're a part of it? Or everyone else in our friend group?”

“I would kill to have a destiny like that,” Walrus laughed. “I sure hope I'm a part of it. Everyone is, I'm sure of it. We'll stop the rotten dragons that threaten you, I promise. I know you can do it.”

“Thanks,” Sharptongue said softly. “At least someone does. I'm going to go find the others and see what they're up to. See you later, Walrus.”

“If you ever need another feelings jam, just come see me,” Walrus called as Sharptongue walked away. Sharptongue wondered if Walrus would be interested in hearing him rant about Ghostcaller and his more than obvious crush, but decided he was not going to be like Rime and burden one of the more decent dragons with that kind of drama.

“Well, I have to say I smell a lovely shade of red beneath those shiny little things,” Sharptongue poked his head into the art cave where Pyrope and Ghostcaller were relaxing. Sharptongue spotted a crude painting of what he figured was Ghostcaller on Pyrope's canvas. It wasn't that bad, really. She was fairly decent and he could at least tell what she was trying to draw.

Ghostcaller on the other talon was much better, a very realistic looking crow on his canvas, sitting on a branch. The level of detail was startling. Sharptongue felt like it could just leap off the canvas and fly around the room at any second.

He was about to walk into the room and compliment them, but then stopped. They were sitting fairly close, one of Ghostcaller's wings draped over Pyrope and she had a talon over his.

“Well, it's not as lovely as your scales, I'm sure,” Ghostcaller said to her and Pyrope laughed. Oh. _Oh_. Sharptongue turned and immediately started to walk away, feeling embarrassed by having walked into that.

“I know that smell anywhere,” Pyrope's head suddenly turned in his direction. “Come on in, eclipse!”

Sharptongue whipped around, eyes wide. “Wh-You!” He snarled and glared furiously at Ghostcaller. “You told her!”

“I didn't say anything,” Ghostcaller protested, frowning.

“Oh, stop it,” Pyrope huffed, stopping the fight before it happened. “It's not that hard to figure out, Sharptongue. He didn't say anything to me.”

“And apparently my word means nothing,” Ghostcaller added, sounding hurt by Sharptongue's accusation. Sharptongue's anger melted into regret when the SandWing turned his back to him and continued to work on his painting.

“I'm sorry,” Sharptongue said. Ghostcaller either ignored him or didn't care. “I'm sorry, okay? It was stupid-I'm stupid for...-I'm sorry. Past me is an idiot and should just throw himself off a cliff for not trusting you.” He walked over to sit near them, careful to keep a safe distance.

Ghostcaller's brush strokes halted and the SandWing glanced over at him with a frown for a moment, studying the NightWing before he sat the brush down and walked over to him. “That's...a really worrying quirk you've got, are you okay?”

“What is?” Sharptongue asked. “I'm fine.”

“Referring to your past self as if he isn't you,” Ghostcaller answered. “And insulting him and saying he should do something like _that_ kind of isn't normal or healthy. Are you okay?”

“I'm fine!” Sharptongue hissed. “I've always done that, it's no big deal.”

“Yes it is,” Ghostcaller said, tail curling up anxiously. “If you want to talk about it,-”

“There's nothing to talk about!” Sharptongue snapped, cutting him off. “I'm FINE! Everyone has a negative opinion of their past selves.”

“Yeah, but they don't go around saying they should jump off a cliff,” Ghostcaller snapped back. He then let out a sigh and shook his head “I'm not going to argue with you on this, Sharp.”

“Then don't argue with me. I'll just leave you two alone now.” Sharptongue started to walk away, but Ghostcaller's tail flicked out to stop him.

“Don't,” he said. “I want you to stay here where I know you're safe.”

“We weren't even doing anything,” Pyrope said when she heard Sharptongue's growl. “It was just playful flirting, nothing serious or long-term.” She flashed him a grin when she thought Ghostcaller wouldn't see it and Sharptongue glared at her, ears burning.

“If you're worried about the assassin, don't,” Sharptongue hissed to Ghostcaller. “I don't need you protecting me from them, I can defend myself just fine, thanks.”

“It's not the assassin that I'm worried about harming you.” Ghostcaller turned back to him and Sharptongue could see the clear, unspoken message in his face, even with the glasses hiding his eyes. Sharptongue felt his wings grow heavy.

“Me-? You think-? Ghostcaller, no, I'm not- I wouldn't-...” Sharptongue sputtered in shock and shook his head, forcing a coherent sentence out, “I wouldn't do that. I'll admit that I hate myself, but I wouldn't go that far. I kind of don't like blood much.”

“That makes two of us then,” Ghostcaller let out a snort, but it sounded forced, no amusement behind it. “Just stay in here, okay? Please?” Sharptongue sighed and sat between him and Pyrope so he could watch the both of them.

“You two are really good,” he said after a few moments. “I mean, Pyrope is technically decent, but it's still pretty good for a blind dragon.”

“You have no filter.” Pyrope grinned at him. “Thank you, though.” Sharptongue wondered if the accuracy of the painting meant she could still see at least a tiny bit. It seemed a little too accurate for it to be pure guesswork and he still wasn't sure if her claim of 'I can smell colors' was true or not.

“It gives me something to do in the night when I can't sleep,” Ghostcaller said with a shrug. “There's a whole flock of crows near my house at Sanctuary and they refuse to leave me alone, so I just kind of got used to having them in my room all the time. Since I'm stuck with them a majority of my day they're the easiest thing for me to paint.”

“So you're a crow whisperer,” Sharptongue joked. Ghostcaller's mouth gave a small twitch as he fought back a smile and Pyrope let out a laugh.

“Well, if only he could be a dragon whisperer,” she said. Ghostcaller reached over to give her painting a few new details and she stuck her tongue out at him, threatening to lick him if he tried it. Ghostcaller wisely retreated back to his own painting.

“Hey, Ghostcaller, have you seen Lightweaver anywhere?” Sharptongue asked.

“Take a wild guess of where she might be,” Ghostcaller answered.

“With Rose?”

“Yep.”

“Of course she is.”

“Hey, Sharptongue,” Pyrope caught his attention and he looked over to her in confusion. “I don't care about your lack of powers, okay? You don't have to tell anyone, but for the record I think everyone knows already.”

 

“So did you and GC enjoy your bonding time?” Oddeyes prodded Sharptongue in the side and Sharptongue swatted his talon away, hissing insults and curses at him.

Sharptongue had eventually parted ways with Pyrope and Ghostcaller once he was sure Ghostcaller was no longer worried about him and hunted Oddeyes and Lightweaver down to hang out with them.

“Are you and Princess Cuttlfish enjoying yours?” Sharptongue shot back at him. Oddeyes blinked and looked away from his friend.

“I don't know what you're talking about,” he protested. “We're just friends.”

“And Lightweaver doesn't have a massive crush on Rose,” Sharptongue replied. Lightweaver let out a noise of protest, but no one paid her much mind.

“We've all got weird crushes we don't know what to do with,” Oddeyes huffed. “Whatever. Doesn't matter.”

“I don't,” Sharptongue said. “You two do. My love life is exactly like my parents; dead.”

“Oh, you wish,” Lightweaver huffed. “Sharptongue, you and Ghostcaller have been spending an awful lot of time together, almost as much as I spend with Rose.”

“We're cavemates of course I spend a lot of time with him!” Sharptongue threw his wings up and started pacing. “I have three or four classes with him, too! I spend plenty of time with the others, too! Bull, Lightning and Angler aren't around all that often, at least not in the cave. Walrus and I chat a lot. I only avoid Hurricane because talking with him for too long gives me a headache.”

“Denial _is_ the first step,” Oddeyes chuckled. “Speaking of classes, how have they been going for you? Mine are boring.”

“We all have the same exact classes,” Sharptongue pointed out. “Music and art are great, I guess. History is horrible and Rime has to help me out most of the time.” Oddeyes scowled at the mention of the IceWing.

“Ugh, sorry you have to go through such a torture,” he said. “I'd help you, but I couldn't care less for history. Math is more of my thing. What about you, LW?”

“Literature is quite fun,” Lightweaver answered. “As is art. I cannot say the same for the other classes, however. A majority of the dragons I share a music class with do not know how to play instruments, myself included, so that one is balancing on the edge of the cliff. Depending on who decides to try what it could turn out decent or it could shatter glass with its horrendous sound.”

“I'd invite you to my music class, but it's mostly just Ghostcaller and Hurricane outplaying everyone else,” Sharptongue said.

“I wouldn't expect anything less of GC,” Oddeyes snorted. “Don't worry too much about Bull, by the way. He's still a bit nervous to hang out with dragons he doesn't know too well. I'm sure he'll warm up to you soon.” Sharptongue was hoping Oddeyes was right. He didn't like the way Bull always avoided him and the others, keeping out of their way when he saw them enter the room. He was fairly certain it was Tarantula's fault and he wanted to hit her for it every time he spotted Bull dart behind the corner out of sight.

“Did you ever find Flare?” Sharptongue asked. Oddeyes shook his head.

“I've been a little busy,” he answered. “She might just be here to support Bull.”

“I sincerely hope you have not been stressing over the prophecy,” Lightweaver said to him. “I have not had anymore visions since that day and I believe it is safe to say it will be a while longer before we must do anything.”

“I don't know,” Oddeyes sighed. “I've been having dreams lately. I wouldn't call them visions, but _something_ bad is going to happen, I can feel it.”

“The only bad thing that will happen to us is us disappointing our parents if we don't pass our classes,” Sharptongue grumbled.

 

History went a lot better the next day. There wasn't too much to talk about in between the Scorching and Darkstalker's rise and fall in the past aside from a few skirmishes between the kingdoms. Most of it probably didn't matter too much, considering there wasn't a whole lot of information on the subjects. Sharptongue could only hope there wasn't a test on it later.

“So are you starting Aquatic lessons today?” Sharptongue asked Cuttlefish as they walked out of the cave.

“Yep!” she answered, flashing a couple scales at the same time. Sharptongue wondered if that was supposed to mean 'yes' in Aquatic. “We'll be doing it just outside the school where there's plenty of space for everyone.”

“So how do you and Rime know each other?” Sharptongue asked as they headed through the halls, weaving around the other dragons. He wanted a straight answer for that question, not one that was sugar-coated or an outright lie.

“Well, mother and I were visiting the Ice Kingdom a couple years ago and we had gotten there just as a blizzard started,” Cuttlefish started to explain. “I found a little dragonet curled up under a little ledge and begged mother to let him stay with us in the guest room. His father, the leader of the royal guard and brother to Queen Penguin, came up with the idea of having Rime stay at the Visitor Palace back in the Kingdom of the Sea and he's been staying with us ever since.”

“Why would he be out in the middle of a blizzard?” Sharptongue asked, frowning.

“I don't know.” Cuttlefish shrugged in response. “He's never told me or anyone, really.” Her nose scrunched up as she added, “The IceWings are still really strict and iffy about appearances. I bet he got into an argument with one of his parents and stormed out. I wouldn't blame him for it, either.”

The new information definitely gave Sharptongue a new look on the IceWing. Even if the fight with his parents was really _that_ bad, it was worrying that they would be perfectly okay with him going all the way to the other side of the continent. Letters from just the Rainforest Kingdom took _days_ to get to the Night Kingdom. He couldn't imagine how long it would take for one to get from the Bay of a Thousand Scales to Ice Spire Peak.

“Hi, everyone!” Cuttlefish greeted as they made it outside. Sharptongue could see pretty much everyone from their little friend group among the crowd, along with quite a few other dragons he knew were in their winglet and some from others as well.

Diamond Dust, Lightning and Angler were sitting among his friend group and he made his way over to them, waving a hello to Angler who grinned and flashed his scales-the same ones and same pattern as Cuttlefish had done earlier. Snow Leopard wormed her way in between Sharptongue and Horse, a bright smile on her face.

Cuttlefish announced raised her wings and flashed some of the swirling patterns beneath them. The SeaWings all quieted down immediately and the rest of the dragons quickly followed.

“We'll start off simple today,” Cuttlefish announced. “With a simple 'hello'.” She flashed the scales on her nose again as she said the world 'hello'. Many of the SeaWings copied her and as the lesson went on, Sharptongue did his best to memorize all he could. He would probably have to ask for Cuttlefish's help later, but at least he knew some of the basics.

She taught them some talon signals as well, much easier for Sharptongue to memorize since he could actually copy and practice those. Having Angler close by helped a lot as well, since he could get a better look at how the talon signals were supposed to look. Several dragons in the crowd turned to their SeaWing friends to ask them to demonstrate again or teach them a new word or something along those lines.

Cuttlefish herself looked more than happy with the results of the first lesson. She was grinning ear to ear, her tail tapping against the ground happily. Rime stood beside her, whispering something to her. She playfully shoved him with her wing and said something back, but Sharptongue was too far away to hear what they were talking about. He turned his attention to Angler instead, who was locked in conversation with Diamond Dust.

“Isn't this great?” Diamond Dust said, smiling at Sharptongue. “Once the word gets out, SeaWings all across Pyrrhia will be able to talk with other dragons in Aquatic without worrying about no one understanding them.”

Angler nodded in agreement with Diamond Dust. He smiled and looked over at Cuttlefish, flashing his scales. Sharptongue was about to ask what exactly he had said when Diamond Dust translated for him, “Angler, if anyone's going to be the new queen it'll be princess Turquoise. She's old enough and I bet she wants it more.”

“I had no idea SeaWings had an entire other language based just around their scales and talons,” Snow Leopard spoke up. “Do you think the other tribes do, too? Or is it just them?”

“I imagine they don't,” Sharptongue answered. "The other tribes don't have flashing scales.”

“They did once,” Horse said. “I hear all dragons are descended from one species. It's a fascinating tale. I studied a little bit of it. Every language the tribes speak came from one language that had a little bit of everything, similar to the one we use today. The NightWings knew more about that, I bet, at least long ago. They must have forgotten it all when they fled to the Volcanic Island.”

“That was only because of Darkstalker forcing them out of their home in a way that made it very difficult to take anything with them,” Sharptongue said. “A lot of old things were lost that way, but we figured it out again eventually.”

Snow Leopard shook her head. “I'll never understand why it is you're so determined to make new things all the time. I think we're fine with what we have.”

“You grew up in the wilderness,” Horse huffed. “Of course you wouldn't understand.” He nudged her with his wing and she stumbled, laughing, before climbing up onto his back. Apparently they had had that conversation before.

“Let's hear you complain once I bring lunch back,” she said. Horse smiled back at her and didn't argue.

“What do you mean by that?” Sharptongue asked. “Growing up in the wilderness, I mean.”

“I don't know how it happened, but my earliest memory is of me wandering through the snow,” Snow Leopard answered. “I was really far away from any IceWing village or town, but a nice snow leopard heard my calls and took me back to her cave and raised me with her kittens. I met Horse when I was about two years old, after my mom said it was time for me to leave the cave, and he took me back to his home. I've been staying with him ever since.”

Sharptongue couldn't help but be skeptical. “You were raised by a snow leopard?”

Snow Leopard nodded. “Yep! She called me something else, but Horse named me Snow Leopard in honor of her. She lost a kitten when she found me. She knew I was different, but to her I was still her kitten.”

“What did she call you?” Sharptongue questioned.

Snow Leopard let out some weird noise that sounded like a high pitched mountain lion call. “It means Snow Gift in snow leopard speech.” Sharptongue still had a lot of trouble believing a dragon could be raised by a snow leopard of all things, but he figured there was no point in arguing.

Sharptongue turned his attention back to Cuttlefish as she asked for silence again so they could review their little lesson and answer any questions they had. His mind began to wander back to all the warnings he had received. He wanted to trust all of the dragons he had met, but with Snow Leopard being raised in the wilderness, Rime and Cuttlefish being royalty and in such a high position their actions would never be questioned, Pyrope being able to see even without the use of her eyes and Horse being so smart and strong, he couldn't help but wonder if any of them might be the assassin instead of his allies.

 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Ok, so I know I said no fantribes, but I could not pass up the opportunity to make a teeny tiny reference to mine in this chapter. None will actually physically make an appearance in this fanfic, as tempted as I am to throw a cameo in.  
> Don't be afraid to ask questions or leave comments! I'll answer the questions as soon as I can, but if it involves a spoiler my answer will be vague.  
> Please don't feel bad if I fail to reply to comments because I'm actually kind of nervous when talking to people I don't know, but I absolutely love every last one of you and the comments you leave and all the kudos y'all have given me.


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